His head throbbed and he kept trying to open his eyes hoping to get his bearings. Eyes closed he knew he was on the ground, hard, cold, and felt like dirt but where this patch of ground was located was beyond him at that moment. Deciding to try another approach, Cam stopped trying to see and concentrated on listening. There was an echo of someone walking down a corridor and distant voices shouting incomprehensible things but that still didn't tell him where he was.
Like a firework exploding behind his eyelids he had a vision of the Stargate, not just any Stargate, theirs. Earth's. That one vision opened the floodgates and his memory played the last few images he had seen: The Daedalus, Atlantis, Puddle Jumpers, SG-1. Another memory popped into mind, the scarred man wearing black leather staring at him intently as the room spun around them.
Cam felt his stomach rebel and rolled over, vomiting until he felt there was nothing left inside. Shakily he sat himself up, his throbbing head worsening.
Scorpius. He didn't know if it was some trick of the translator microbes or if that name meant something else in another language but to Cam it sounded like he had been named after a scorpion. Small insect but deadly causing great pain. Cam laughed for a second stopping as he realised how bitter and hollow it sounded. Hoping the room wasn't still spinning he tried opening his eyes again.
He was in a dark small cell with one door marking his only exit. He crawled to the walls patting them, wanting to find some other means of leaving but only succeeding in making his headache worse which he hadn't thought possible. Resigning himself momentarily to sitting against the wall he tried to remember what had happened.
He had left the women to try and escape hoping to find a way during the false reactor overload to rescue Jack. They'd been waiting for him, calling him by his Peacekeeper alias and he hadn't had a chance to react. Things began to get a little blurry after that. He did remember being dragged to a device resembling a large chair and being strapped down. Then the pain and memories had come forth in full force and he had cried out in frustration as he tried desperately to stop the images from playing out in front of Scorpius.
It hadn't worked and neither had ignoring Scorpius's persistent questions. What was the device? How far could they travel? Where was he from? All questions that Cam refused to answer verbally that Scorpius and his toy managed to get pieces of answers to. The pain had grown to levels that Cam had thought unimaginable and he fought to control the memories from pouring forth.
He didn't remember it ending, or getting to this room he now sat in. He wasn't even sure of exactly what he had said or thought and that scared him more than anything else. Had he shown Scorpius that they had come from a different Earth, a different reality? What about those on Moya? Had he put them in even more danger?
He wanted to bang his head on the wall to stop all the terrible 'what if's' but knew that it wouldn't solve anything. Right now he had to focus on getting out, finding Jack and finding his way back to Vala.
"My side, your side. My side, your side..."
Jack groaned and reached out in a futile attempt to murder whoever it was that wouldn't shut up.
"My side, your side. My side, your side. Get off my mat."
At the change in the strange chanting Jack realised he was lying on a scrap of material, obviously the psycho's mat. He crawled off hoping it would quieten him not particularly wanting the guards to return and decide it was time for another spin in the chair. When he felt his back hit a wall he stopped, but the chanting continued.
"My side, your side. My side, your side..."
Jack forced his eyes to focus on the source of this new irritation. It was a man, or something similar he mused, with half his face covered by a metal plate formed to fit his features, strapped around his head. As Jack gazed at his new cellmate the chanting ceased prompting an eyebrow lift from Jack.
"You were just in my chair too, weren't you?"
Jack almost snorted over the obvious statement as he refused to believe it could be a question. Not unless these Peacekeepers had something worse than the Aurora chair but the mere thought of that made him shudder.
"You like the chair?" Despite this man's obvious mental state Jack wondered if he would be of any use especially if he'd been here for a while.
"My chair, yes, my chair. Scorpie puts me in it. My chair."
"Gotcha, your chair. What've you got there?" Jack noticed that the man seemed to be holding something tightly in his hands.
"N..n..nothing."
"What have you got in your hand?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"I can see you're holding something."
"No. Love the chair, love the chair."
Fed up of the incessant babbling Jack moved over to the man, reaching out for whatever it was that he was trying to conceal. The man moved suddenly startling Jack and grabbed him by the neck. With his pounding head and the feeling of sheer exhaustion that gnawed at him thanks to the chair Jack was too slow to react. Instead he stayed where the man pinned him against the wall noting that while he was being held by the neck the grip was not particularly strong.
"Stop. If you don't stop I'm going to have to kill you." Despite what Jack perceived as the man's obvious insanity this statement came out cold and clear, mildly startling Jack.
For a fleeting moment Jack wondered if death would be a better option than the chair. "Don't think Scorpie would be too pleased. Think he was planning on killing me himself."
With surprising strength the man hurled Jack away from him, sending Jack across several feet of floor. Jack didn't retaliate instead choosing to lean against the wall thinking the situation through.
"You're not crazy, are you." There was something in the man's eyes that didn't add up to the crazy act. Jack didn't glance at the man as he spoke quietly and waited for an answer.
"No. But they think I am and don't bother me so much."
"Ah. So if you aren't crazy, then what'cha got there?"
"My baby." The man scooted closer and Jack rethought the whole not crazy thing.
It was some kind of gadget that he'd made over the time he'd been imprisoned that was supposed to unlock the door. How, Jack had no clue, but it would only work one sequence at a time. Jack let the man babble on glad for some form of normal conversation trying to keep his mind off the chair.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Vala glared at all the members of Moya silently challenging them to invent some plan of action.
"Vala, I don't know what we can do." Zhaan spoke just as kindly and calmly as she had been for the past several hours.
"We can't just leave them there."
Watching the faces around her she could see the fear in Samantha and Sarah's faces, the frown that D'Argo was wearing, and the distressed look in Daniel's face. Zhaan was the only one who was not wearing her emotions and Vala wanted to scream for her to show her true feelings. Zhaan had been by her side since the others had arrived back on Moya and it was beginning to try on Vala's nerves.
She had very little recollection of exactly what had happened in the past few hours, or was it days now? She'd woken to see Zhaan's blue face staring at her, a cool hand lightly brushing her face and to hear that it hadn't been a horrible dream. Cam was not there. He was captured. Now she wanted to get him and Jack back but everyone else seemed reluctant to do anything about it.
Chiana spoke up in Vala's aid. "Look, there's John's friend. The one I told you about. She could help."
"Don't encourage her.."
"Thank you Chiana. I'm glad that someone else here is with me on this." Vala crossed her arms over her protruding belly.
"She helped us get out of there.."
"How?" A small voice came from the end of the table.
"How? How the frell would I know? She.."
"Gilina." Sarah interrupted Chiana.
"Fine. Gilina is a tech and that dren is not my line of expertise." Vala felt the urge to throttle Chiana as she flirted with D'Argo, putting emphasis on specific words but restrained herself not wanting to incapacitate the only one there who was in agreement with her.
"But how? If we want to get Jack and Cam back we need to have a plan." The small voice was Samantha and Vala shot her a grateful smile.
"We'd need to get to the surface." D'Argo let out a huge sigh as if the words caused him a great deal of effort.
"Same way we got back here." Vala wondered if Chiana was going to jump the table to get to D'Argo anytime soon.
"Ok, so we can get to the surface. Then what?"
"Vala, there are hundreds of Peacekeepers down there. I can not infiltrate the base without being detected." D'Argo's even stare shocked Vala a little.
"I can."
Heads whipped around to Samantha who again spoke very quietly.
"I know some of the layout of the base and in order for us to be able to escape Gilina had to give us some of the security clearance needed for techs. I've got the uniform, I just need a better disguise."
"Thank you Sam. So that's three of us. Anyone else?"
"Fine. If you're all going to be idiots I may as well be too." Vala was relieved to hear D'Argo's gruff tone voice his intent.
"I will join you."
"Zhaan?" Daniel, Sarah and Vala all looked at her with surprise.
"If Mitchell and O'Neill have been in this chair you mentioned they could use my assistance."
"Good. Now we need to leave as soon..."
"Vala, you're not going." Daniel and Zhaan both spoke up at the same time.
"And why not?"
"Firstly, you're one of them. Secondly, if anything happened to you what do you think Cam will do?" Daniel's kindly spoken words caused the argument on Vala's lips to die. A swift kick from the baby reminded her that recklessness was not something Cam would take lightly and that a piece of him was still with her. She had to do the best for the baby. She nodded her agreement fighting tears.
He had no way of knowing exactly how much time had passed. He was hauled out of the cell, placed in the chair and thrown back in his cell several times. Each time Scorpius was there demanding answers to the same questions. Over and over he watched as he tried to fight images of going through the 'gate, meeting new societies, gaining technology, finding something new. He wondered how much he managed to block and what would happen when he lost the little strength he had left. It wouldn't be long, he was sure.
This last trip had almost done it. The pain was lacing through his mind burning him like fire and he was unable to do anything but lie where they had dropped him. That was when he'd heard her.
"John... Cam."
"Gilina?" He could barely believe his ears.
"Yes. Ssh. Keep your back to the wall."
"Yeah," Cam mumbled and dragged himself into a position where the security system would not be able to see his face. Unable to draw enough strength to sit up he lounged against the wall.
"Jack is not far from you. Two cells to your right."
"Gilina, what's going on?"
"You need to rest. Don't try and fight. Do you understand?" There was something in her voice that told him she was scared and something was either being planned or had been planned.
"Don't try it, you'll be killed." Cam was under the impression that Gilina was going to come and rescue him and Jack sealing her own fate in the process.
"Rest." Gilina's last word echoed through the cell and Cam sank down to the ground calling her name, wanting to stop whatever she had planned.
He woke when he heard the latch of the cell door move. He opened his bleary eyes and tried to determine who was coming in. He could see two men dressed in Peacekeeper red and black leather and one female in a green tunic. The one man moved towards him and kicked him out of the way. Cam grabbed his side where the kick had landed and rolled over remembering Gilina's words not to fight.
"There's nothing..." As he spoke a device the woman was holding began to beep loudly. As the Peacekeeper moved towards the woman the other man moved towards Cam. Cam looked up in horror as he recognized Daniel and what he was doing. In the blink of an eye Daniel stabbed the man in the neck and within moments the man was unconscious on the floor.
Accepting the offered hand Cam got to his feet shakily. "What was that?"
"Something Zhaan gave us." At that moment he recognized the woman. Sam with very short dark hair.
"He's going to be alright though? Right?" Daniel looked pale and was shaking slightly.
"You should've come." Cam ignored Daniel's question.
"We did and now it's time to leave." Daniel went to the door and cautiously stuck his head out.
"We have to get Jack." Now his vision cleared Cam could see lines of concern etched into Sam's face.
"Gilina said he's two cells down from me." Cam pulled Daniel back into the cell. "Before we go, I need to know what's going on. Who else is here? Who knows you're here?"
"Just us, D'Argo and Zhaan. C'mon." Daniel handed Cam a pulse pistol and let Cam lean on him as they ventured out into the hallway. Two cells down Sam opened the door where a man with half his face covered began shouting. It took some convincing to quieten him down and he began to plead to come with them. Glancing at Jack, who had introduced the man as Stark, Sam received a shrug and the group of five moved out into the passage.
They made their way to the alcove that Cam had used before when helping the girls escape. Gilina contacted them there and gave them directions to a little used exit into the base. The relatively short journey took much longer than Cam was comfortable with as they had to continually hide from patrols. The word had gotten out that prisoners had escaped and with the amount of Peacekeepers on base it wouldn't be long until someone saw them.
"Wait." Cam stopped in his tracks causing Daniel to walk into him.
"We need to leave, now!" Samantha hissed at him echoed shortly after by Stark.
"Gilina. We can't leave her here." Cam turned, unsure of were to go.
"She's not coming. I already tried to convince her to escape with us."
"I'll go. She'll listen to me."
"We don't have time." Daniel tried to stand in Cam's way but was roughly shoved aside.
"Cam, we tried. She said we still need her on the base to escape." Samantha was looking around frantically expecting Peacekeepers to find them at any moment.
Jack watched them contemplating what they said and when Cam looked at him for his opinion he hesitated before answering. "Is she safe here?"
"She didn't think that the Peacekeepers knew what she was doing. When I asked her to come with us she said she'd rather stay with her people." Cam noticed a look of guilt on Samantha's face as she spoke but before he could ask her about it, Jack spoke again.
"Then we..."
"Peacekeepers!" Stark cried spotting a patrol around the corner. In an instant the decision was made and the group climbed into a stairwell.
They found the air vent that Gilina had directed them to and began climbing, Cam first, Jack at the rear. With the adrenaline pumping through his body Cam felt far better than he should have and for the moment he was grateful. At the surface they were greeted by Zhaan and D'Argo who handed them weapons.
"It's good to see you again," D'Argo grunted.
"Same you." Cam relished the slight breeze that touched his skin. It was something he thought he might never feel again.
They hadn't gone far before they heard the first weapons discharge and all of them dove for cover. D'Argo had indicated where the transport pod was and as a group they all moved in that direction trading shots with Peacekeepers. Cam wanted to laugh at Stark who seemed to be fully enjoying the experience, laughing and shooting wildly in the direction of the Peacekeepers. At one point he pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Jack.
"Give them something to remember us by."
Jack frowned and looked at Cam, then Stark, puzzled. Stark mimed what Jack should do with it and he stuck it onto one of the stone pillars and they all began to run. By the time the device exploded Cam was separated from the others with only a general idea of where he was heading, still trading shots with the remaining Peacekeepers. Backing up he felt something cold kiss his neck.
"You aren't going with them," Scorpius hissed in his ear his weapon the object at his neck.
Suddenly Gilina was in front of them, weapon ready. Cam yelled at her to shoot but she hesitated. A shot from the side skimmed Scorpius's shoulder as he returned fire, just hitting Gilina in the waist. In an instant more shots were fired but from whom Cam had no idea. He felt Scorpius let go of him and he hit the ground moving towards Gilina.
D'Argo, Stark and Jack rushed towards them, D'Argo still firing his Qualta Blade as Scorpius ran for cover. Once D'Argo stopped firing Cam noticed the absence of return fire and took the opportunity to stand up. The four of them ran to the transport pod, D'Argo carrying Gilina reluctantly, where Samantha, Chiana and Zhaan were waiting.
Cam handed Gilina over to Zhaan's care and sank onto the floor, feeling his heart still racing but his strength slowly waning. Looking at Jack he assumed his friend was feeling the same as he sat leaning on the wall, eyes closed. Chiana greeted D'Argo enthusiastically but D'Argo was more interested in getting them off the base and back to Moya.
As the Transport pod took off Cam listened as D'Argo, Chiana and Samantha informed him of what had happened in the past two days. Cam was shocked to hear that it had been that long, but somehow it felt less than that yet more than that all at the same time. As he listened to Chiana talk about the vector they were using where the Peacekeepers would not be able to track them he felt his body relax slowly and within moments allowed himself to join Jack in a few moments of slumber.