"Defense calls Major Samantha Carter to the stand," Admiral Chegwidden announced as he rose to stand from behind the defense table. Sam rose and walked quickly to the witness stand. After Janet's testimony the previous morning, their attorneys had called her father and Teal'c to testify. Neither man's testimony had taken long. Jacob had been asked about how he became involved in the SGC and his observations of the relationship between she and Jack. Teal'c had been asked similar questions about his own entry into the SGC and the interactions between the members of SG-1. His testimony had actually taken longer than Jacob's as Harm had asked Teal'c to describe past mission incidents. Their testimony had mainly been to lay the groundwork for she and Jack. After swearing her in, A.J. asked, "Please state your name and rank for the record."

"Major Samantha Carter," she replied.

"Major Carter, please describe for the court your daily existence during your captivity on Panersh," Chegwidden requested.

Sam swallowed as she nodded. "We were awakened at dawn each day by the sounding of a kind of horn. The slaves gathered in the central square of the camp where the morning meal was distributed. The majority of the women were then taken into the fields to work. A few went into the mines with the men. The women in the mines separated the naquadah ore while the men did the digging and smelting. At midday we were given a second meal then allowed to rest for two hours before finishing the day," Sam explained. "At the end of the day we returned to the square where the evening meal was distributed."

A.J. noted the reactions on the faces of the members of the court throughout Carter's explanation. Many appeared to dismiss the harshness of what she described. Who could imagine slaves getting a nap during the day? "Major, how long is a day on Panersh?" he asked.

"Twenty eight hours," Sam said.

"So the morning shift was eight hours long then you were allowed to rest for two hours before working a second eight hour shift?" A.J. asked wanting to make sure the members of the court understood clearly. "Sixteen hours a day you labored."

"Yes," Sam confirmed.

"What about as your pregnancy advanced?" the admiral asked. "Surely they didn't make you work then?"

"The sorters were usually the most heavily pregnant of the women. They were allowed to sit on stools next to the conveyor. Only the strong survive on Panersh," she told him. "Jack gave me a portion of his own food each day to help me keep my strength up as the babies developed."

"How much food were you given in these meals?" Chegwidden queried.

"A piece of bread and a bowl of soup," Carter informed him. "Sometimes a vegetable from the fields if I could sneak it past the guards."

"How much do you currently weigh, Major?"

"Eighty-two pounds," Sam admitted with a grimace.

"What is your normal weight?"

"One hundred eighteen."

"When you were captured what happened to your handgun?" A.J. asked.

"Colonel O'Neill ordered that we ditch them when we were first taken through the 'Gate."

"Why?"

"As far as the jaffa knew we were just a couple of natives," Sam explained. "We couldn't let them find out we were Tau'ri. We kept our knives, but the hand guns would have given us away."

"Tau'ri?" the admiral asked.

"Tau'ri are what the goa'uld call people from Earth," Sam informed him.

"What would have happened if the goa'uld had found out you were Tau'ri?" A.J. asked pausing over the last word.

"Objection!" Rivers protested. "Calls for speculation."

"I'll rephrase," A.J. acquiesced to Rivers. "What happened on Panersh when the goa'uld did find out you were Tau'ri?"

Sam swallowed then took a deep breath. "Panersh has no Stargate, and only once a Panersh year does a ship arrive," she said. "We had to get ourselves taken aboard the ship. For fifteen months we tried to think of a way, but the only one we came up with was to reveal ourselves as Tau'ri. I was only a few weeks from giving birth when the ship arrived." Sam's eyes had lost focus as she spoke, and she swayed a little in her seat in the witness stand. "The goa'uld who rules Panersh has the slaves assembled in the square each year when she comes to collect her 'crop' and the processed naquadah from the mine."

A.J. poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the defense table and brought it to her. "Take your time," he said gently.

Sam nodded her thanks as she took a sip. "I pretended to break down. I threw myself at her feet begging for my babies' lives. I told her we were Tau'ri and that I would tell her anything she wanted as long as she'd let my children go," Sam said as her eyes once again lost focus. "That was the colonel's signal. He slapped me. Told me to keep my mouth shut."

"Revealing himself as Tau'ri as well," A.J. stated.

"Yes," she confirmed. "It worked. We were taken aboard the ship. The System Lords have a bounty on our heads. We hoped that she would sell us to one of the major System Lords for the bounty. She's well known for her avarice. Not that one goa'uld is really any better than another, but the major System Lords are always under surveillance from the Tok'ra. Once we were in the hands of someone like Yu or Osiris word would have reached Earth through them that we were alive."

"So what happened after you were brought aboard her ship?" the admiral asked.

"We were taken to a room and chained to opposite walls. That's when we saw the sarcophagus," Sam related. She sat so straight in the seat it appeared as if her spine really was made of steel. Her entire body radiated extreme tension, and the color had slowly drained from her face. "The goa'uld came into the room and introduced herself. She said she was Eszia daughter of Ra and Hathor and that she was pleased to finally meet O'Neill and Carter of the Tau'ri," Sam said. Sam's hand shook as she grabbed the glass of water and brought it to her mouth to take a sip.

"What did she do after she introduced herself?" The admiral stood with his arms across his chest as he asked the question.

"She started on the colonel," Sam said in a shaky voice. "She was covered in his blood by the time she had the jaffa put him in the sarcophagus. She came at me then. She said she'd already accepted payment for the babies. She didn't want to give it back," Carter explained choking back a sob. "She...she used the ribbon device on me instead of the more bloody things she'd done to Jack."

Sam spent the next hour describing the days of torture she and O'Neill had endured at the hands of Eszia. "Thank you," A.J. told her as she paused to regain her composure. He knew she hadn't even begun to describe all that she and Jack had endured over those brief days, but the point had been made. A.J. could see the reaction of the members of the court. He wanted them to remember this but not get fixated on it. "How did you finally make your escape?"

"I went into labor," Carter informed him. "She ordered a single guard to take me back down to the surface for the babies to be born then bring me back. As he was walking me back to the rings, I had another contraction. I let myself fall against him. While he was holding me upright I lifted the zat holstered at his waist. As soon as I was back on my feet, I shot him then made my way back down to the colonel. I had surprise on my side. When I entered the room, I was already firing. I took them out then released Colonel O'Neill from his restraints."

"You then found your way to the Stargate aboard the ship and dialed out to Cimmeria?" Chegwidden asked.

"Yes," Carter confirmed. "It was hardly the first time we'd escaped from a goa'uld mothership. We were almost to the 'Gate when the guards entered. They shot the colonel. He told me to go, but I couldn't leave him there. I turned and fired back. I was hit twice before I had downed the last of them. Luckily they were guards from the planet so their weapons were the lower powered staffs used to herd slaves. They cause damage at close range but generally don't kill. We were only a few feet from the Stargate when they revived so I just kept dragging the colonel through. I must have been hit a couple more times. When we got to Cimmeria I retrieved the emergency GDO and dialed Earth."

"Weren't you afraid the jaffa would follow you through?" A.J. asked.

"There's a device on Cimmeria that guards against jaffa and goa'uld. They can't go there," Sam informed him. "That's why I suggested Cimmeria in the first place."

"Let's take a break," Pierce ordered bringing his gavel down sharply. "Ten minutes."