Branches
The following story is under the sole ownership and copyright of J.L. Scott. Unauthorized copying and/or use is actionable in a court of law.
To borrow a phrase: SG-1, Star Gate and Alias no mine, no permission, no money, no sue...please?
AN: Sorry this has taken so long! Working on other stories now!
Vaughn tried again to look through the mirror but he still couldn't see anything beyond his own face.
Teal'c occupied a chair, talking quietly to Charlie.
"I did not know Jack had a child" the boy, probably not much older than Cassi herself, told him.
"You have been away for a many years" Teal'c replied, "You remember Captain Carter?"
"Yes"
"She is now a major and has since become O'Neill's wife. She has recently given birth to two children, a boy and a girl"
Vaughn was pacing in front of the mirror, Sydney was laying in a bed.
"You speak Goa'uld?" The boy nodded. Teal'c began to tell him of Cassi's long story, using Earth terms when there was no supplement.
Vaughn stopped pacing and tried to listen to them speak, but he could understand a word they said. It wasn't any language he could recognize and he spoke several languages fluently. He gave up and went to sit by Sydney.
"What're they saying?" she asked quietly.
"I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me" he answered. Sydney rolled over onto her back and looked up at him.
"I don't get it" she said, "My mother's not working with Sloan any more. Why does she want genetic codes?"
"Maybe so she can have something he wants." Vaughn suggested.
"Maybe" Sydney admitted slowly. Two seconds of silence insued, then the screaming began. Just one shriek, insulated by the walls. Teal'c's head snapped up and Charlie cut himself off in the middle of his sentence. The sound came from behind the mirror. They all remained silent, just looking at it. A few moments passed. Then there was another scream, this time much more dicernable as "No" Teal'c got up and tried to peer through the glass.
"Can you see anything?" Sydney asked. He turned.
"I cannot" he answered and returned to his conversation with Charlie. Vaughn and Sydney rested themselves. Every so often, a scream would reach their ears and they would all stop and listen. Each scream was a little louded, a little more defiant and a little more hysterical. And they were each dicernable as the word "no". It went on for hours, even after the lights had been turned off.
In the middle of what they could only assume was night, the lights turned back on. They flickered, but didn't go off. They all sat up and waited. They heard nothing.
"Teal'c?" Sydney said, her gaze locked on the mirror, instinctually knowing something important was about to happen.
"Why does my mother want her genetic code so bad?"
"I cannot give you that information" he responded. And then what they had been waiting for came, but not like before. This time, it was in their heads.
NO! I won't let you! The thought was hysterical but there was an underlying control they could all feel. The anger was giving her strength at the moment.
They gained all of these impressions in the few seconds before a man was hurled through the mirror, shooting glass into the room. The man lay still in the shards. The gorup stepped over him cautiously to look through the newly vacated hole.
Cassi was strapped into a hospital bed, her arms out with her palms upturned. She'd been cleaned up a little, but still looked bad. However, she was no longer looking pale and weak.
Men were hanging in the air, others were scattered across the floor as if they'd been hit by some great shock wave. Some were doctors, and the group noticed all of the monitors, some with blown out screens, that were attached by wires to Cassi's head. Some were beeping loudly, the little lines representing whatever they were recording jumping to the tops of the screens. Derevco was standing solidly by the door.
All of this took barely a second to take in.
"You should conserve your energy, Cassandra" Teal'c told her calmly. She raised her head and looked at him. The wildness faded from her eyes, replaced by a kind of exasperated weariness. The men floating in the air lowered softly to the ground, but she had already rendered them unconcious.
"It's true then" Derevco said from her corner.
"What's true?" Sydney demanded. Teal'c and Charlie were crawling through the mirror space and unstrapping Cassi. Sydney and Vaughn followed. Cassi slid off the bed on her own and stood on her own. She kind of smiled at the two CIA agents.
I have some special talents Sydney and Vaughn's jaws dropped for they heard Cassi's voice clearly, but her mouth had not opened. And her voice was not all they had heard. She had colored her comment with many emotions; a slight humor and her understanding of their surprise, the rushed feeling that made her not want to explain just now, and, unintentionally, the weariness and dicouragement she felt.
"She telepathic, Sydney, and telekinetic too" Derevco told her daughter, still staring at Cassi.
"But I don't understand" Vaughn said, "If you had the power to escape, why didn't you?" Cassi sort of smiled.
I had orders. she said, then turned to Charlie, "Are you alright, Charlie?" The boy's eyes flashe oddly, scaring those in the room who had never seen it before.
"We are fine. May I suggest we leave?" he said in a very odd voice.
"You are Relneck?" Cass asked.
"I am" Charlie responded, but it was obvious the voice speaking was not the boy that had been there a moment ago.
"Nice to meet you" Cass said, a little more strength in her voice.
"And you, but shall we go?" At that moment, Derevco's amazement wore off and she bolted out the door. Sydney ran off after her.
"C'mon!" Vaughn yelled and they all followed. The hallway that met them was empty. Vaughn stopped.
"Where are they?" he asked. Cassi's gaze wondered off.
"It's hard to track them" she told him, "They both have strong mental blocks" Then her gazed snapped back.
"That way!" she announced, pointing to the left, down a hallway a few feet ahead. They hurried down the hall and up the ladder at the end that led to the roof. Flood lights illuminated the flat tarmack. A helicopter was raising into the clouds, Sydney was firing at it, but it was out of range.
"Can you stop her?" Vaughn asked over its noise.
"I can try!" Cass yelled back. Under normal circumstances it would have been possible, certainly, but she wasn't sure about now. Still, she closed her eyes and "felt" upwards. There was a hunk of metal and in the middle was a mind......a very closed mind, but there. She concentrated harder, felt the power from her own self, reached................
Sydney watched, amazed as the helicopter began to decend again. She turned to stare openly, as Vaughn was doing, at the young girl who was doing it. Her jaw began to quiver, the blood faded from her face and the hand she gripped Teal'c with lost its strength, but still the helicopter lowered. It was nearly landed when her eyes flashed open. Her body seemed to give out, as she looked up.
"Daddy?" she whispered and collapsed into Teal'c. ANd Sydney was forced to watch as once again her mother slipped out of her fingers and into the cloudy sky above. But when the helicopter was beyond view, the noise had not gone away. The group on the roof of the old castle turned to the west. Just above the horizon, two carrier helicopters were beating their way to their rescue.
With nothing else to do, Teal'c picked Cassi up and the group moved back to allow plenty of room to let the helicopters land. When they did, two dozen armed men poured out.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c yelled loudly, emerging from their safe spot. Three men, all in CIA combat gear, broke away and jogged over.
"For cryin' out loud, Teal'c! What did she do?" the man cried, pulling his helmet off. Sydney was astonished at how much the girl resembled her father.
"Sydney! Vaughn. " Bristo joined them, "Sloan?"
"He's not here" Vaughn answered.
"It was Derevco. She got away" Sydney told him, then pulled Charlie forward.
"This is what Sloan bought. Derevco intercepted him" O'Neill looked past Teal'c's shoulder.
"Charlie?" Charlie smiled.
"Jack!" he said. The other two men removed their helmets too.
"Charlie! How are you?" the one with the glasses said.
"I am well, Dr. Jackson" Charlie replied.
"Genetic coding?" Bristo asked of his daughter.
"Yeah" Sydney answered, "They wanted O'Neills; too" The girl's father's head snapped up.
"They were unsuccesful, O'Neill" Teal's assured him. A couple of men were coming with a gurney for her. The other two men seemed divided about where to go. The doctor ended up talking to Charlie while the other supervised Cassi's getting strapped into the gurney.
"Uh, Sydney, Vaughn, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill and Greg" Bristo made the introductions. The two nodded at all of them.
"Anything we need to know before we move in?" Bristo asked.
"Derevco's gone, Sloan and Sark don't appear to have anything to do with the whole thing. SOme unconcious guards" Vaughn answered.
"Daddy?' It was verbal and mental. Jack jogged quickly to the gurney which was almost in the helicopter now, everyone else following too. The happy(er) father looked down.
"Welcome back" he said. The girl smiled up tiredly.
"You're late"
"You were supposed to wait for me to come rescue you"
"I got bored"
"Bored?" Jackson and Greg exclaimed at the same time. Cass turned her head to the side.
"Uncle Danny! I must admit to surprise" she said, but they could tell she was pleased.
"It was believed I couldn't screw this one up" the man replied jokingly. The other man, much closer to Cassi's age, swept a carressing hand across her brow.
"Greg?" she tried to turn her head to see, but her father stepped back so he could move into a better position. Only the SGC people realized the signifigance.
"Are you alright?" the boy asked tenderly.
"Yeah. I'm just a little hungry" Cass answere flippantly. Greg smiled obligingly and kissed her forehead.
"We really should get going" Bristo told them. The rest of the CIA men had disappered into the castle.
"Wait! Sydney, Vaughn?" Cassi called. The SGC people backed away as they approached. Cass was pale again, and she was starting to look as if she'd lost weight. Her hair was dirty and matted and cuts and bruises still littered her skin. Even so, with that smile, you could see the beauty she was.
You can't tell she told them secretly Not even my own father She made sure to move her mouth so it appeared she was speaking in order to fool those who would recognize her using telepathy. She inserted the importance of the order into their minds. She was prepared to take more drastic measures, but she didn't want to. Sydney and Vaughn looked at each other, then nodded.
"A pleasure working with you both" she added quietly.
"So it was" Teal'c added, having drawn closer. The four realized they most likely would never see each other again.
"Sydney, we really need to go" Bristo said from behind.
"You're breaking up the band, Yoko" the colonel retorted. Bristo slid a gaze at him and didn't roll his eyes.
"Cassi, Teal'c" Vaughn shook the man's hand and together the CIA agents turned and walked away.
We'll be in touch! They both stopped and turned back slightly. Their eye's met Cassi's; she winked and they smiled.
The following story is under the sole ownership and copyright of J.L. Scott. Unauthorized copying and/or use is actionable in a court of law.
To borrow a phrase: SG-1, Star Gate and Alias no mine, no permission, no money, no sue...please?
AN: Sorry this has taken so long! Working on other stories now!
Vaughn tried again to look through the mirror but he still couldn't see anything beyond his own face.
Teal'c occupied a chair, talking quietly to Charlie.
"I did not know Jack had a child" the boy, probably not much older than Cassi herself, told him.
"You have been away for a many years" Teal'c replied, "You remember Captain Carter?"
"Yes"
"She is now a major and has since become O'Neill's wife. She has recently given birth to two children, a boy and a girl"
Vaughn was pacing in front of the mirror, Sydney was laying in a bed.
"You speak Goa'uld?" The boy nodded. Teal'c began to tell him of Cassi's long story, using Earth terms when there was no supplement.
Vaughn stopped pacing and tried to listen to them speak, but he could understand a word they said. It wasn't any language he could recognize and he spoke several languages fluently. He gave up and went to sit by Sydney.
"What're they saying?" she asked quietly.
"I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me" he answered. Sydney rolled over onto her back and looked up at him.
"I don't get it" she said, "My mother's not working with Sloan any more. Why does she want genetic codes?"
"Maybe so she can have something he wants." Vaughn suggested.
"Maybe" Sydney admitted slowly. Two seconds of silence insued, then the screaming began. Just one shriek, insulated by the walls. Teal'c's head snapped up and Charlie cut himself off in the middle of his sentence. The sound came from behind the mirror. They all remained silent, just looking at it. A few moments passed. Then there was another scream, this time much more dicernable as "No" Teal'c got up and tried to peer through the glass.
"Can you see anything?" Sydney asked. He turned.
"I cannot" he answered and returned to his conversation with Charlie. Vaughn and Sydney rested themselves. Every so often, a scream would reach their ears and they would all stop and listen. Each scream was a little louded, a little more defiant and a little more hysterical. And they were each dicernable as the word "no". It went on for hours, even after the lights had been turned off.
In the middle of what they could only assume was night, the lights turned back on. They flickered, but didn't go off. They all sat up and waited. They heard nothing.
"Teal'c?" Sydney said, her gaze locked on the mirror, instinctually knowing something important was about to happen.
"Why does my mother want her genetic code so bad?"
"I cannot give you that information" he responded. And then what they had been waiting for came, but not like before. This time, it was in their heads.
NO! I won't let you! The thought was hysterical but there was an underlying control they could all feel. The anger was giving her strength at the moment.
They gained all of these impressions in the few seconds before a man was hurled through the mirror, shooting glass into the room. The man lay still in the shards. The gorup stepped over him cautiously to look through the newly vacated hole.
Cassi was strapped into a hospital bed, her arms out with her palms upturned. She'd been cleaned up a little, but still looked bad. However, she was no longer looking pale and weak.
Men were hanging in the air, others were scattered across the floor as if they'd been hit by some great shock wave. Some were doctors, and the group noticed all of the monitors, some with blown out screens, that were attached by wires to Cassi's head. Some were beeping loudly, the little lines representing whatever they were recording jumping to the tops of the screens. Derevco was standing solidly by the door.
All of this took barely a second to take in.
"You should conserve your energy, Cassandra" Teal'c told her calmly. She raised her head and looked at him. The wildness faded from her eyes, replaced by a kind of exasperated weariness. The men floating in the air lowered softly to the ground, but she had already rendered them unconcious.
"It's true then" Derevco said from her corner.
"What's true?" Sydney demanded. Teal'c and Charlie were crawling through the mirror space and unstrapping Cassi. Sydney and Vaughn followed. Cassi slid off the bed on her own and stood on her own. She kind of smiled at the two CIA agents.
I have some special talents Sydney and Vaughn's jaws dropped for they heard Cassi's voice clearly, but her mouth had not opened. And her voice was not all they had heard. She had colored her comment with many emotions; a slight humor and her understanding of their surprise, the rushed feeling that made her not want to explain just now, and, unintentionally, the weariness and dicouragement she felt.
"She telepathic, Sydney, and telekinetic too" Derevco told her daughter, still staring at Cassi.
"But I don't understand" Vaughn said, "If you had the power to escape, why didn't you?" Cassi sort of smiled.
I had orders. she said, then turned to Charlie, "Are you alright, Charlie?" The boy's eyes flashe oddly, scaring those in the room who had never seen it before.
"We are fine. May I suggest we leave?" he said in a very odd voice.
"You are Relneck?" Cass asked.
"I am" Charlie responded, but it was obvious the voice speaking was not the boy that had been there a moment ago.
"Nice to meet you" Cass said, a little more strength in her voice.
"And you, but shall we go?" At that moment, Derevco's amazement wore off and she bolted out the door. Sydney ran off after her.
"C'mon!" Vaughn yelled and they all followed. The hallway that met them was empty. Vaughn stopped.
"Where are they?" he asked. Cassi's gaze wondered off.
"It's hard to track them" she told him, "They both have strong mental blocks" Then her gazed snapped back.
"That way!" she announced, pointing to the left, down a hallway a few feet ahead. They hurried down the hall and up the ladder at the end that led to the roof. Flood lights illuminated the flat tarmack. A helicopter was raising into the clouds, Sydney was firing at it, but it was out of range.
"Can you stop her?" Vaughn asked over its noise.
"I can try!" Cass yelled back. Under normal circumstances it would have been possible, certainly, but she wasn't sure about now. Still, she closed her eyes and "felt" upwards. There was a hunk of metal and in the middle was a mind......a very closed mind, but there. She concentrated harder, felt the power from her own self, reached................
Sydney watched, amazed as the helicopter began to decend again. She turned to stare openly, as Vaughn was doing, at the young girl who was doing it. Her jaw began to quiver, the blood faded from her face and the hand she gripped Teal'c with lost its strength, but still the helicopter lowered. It was nearly landed when her eyes flashed open. Her body seemed to give out, as she looked up.
"Daddy?" she whispered and collapsed into Teal'c. ANd Sydney was forced to watch as once again her mother slipped out of her fingers and into the cloudy sky above. But when the helicopter was beyond view, the noise had not gone away. The group on the roof of the old castle turned to the west. Just above the horizon, two carrier helicopters were beating their way to their rescue.
With nothing else to do, Teal'c picked Cassi up and the group moved back to allow plenty of room to let the helicopters land. When they did, two dozen armed men poured out.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c yelled loudly, emerging from their safe spot. Three men, all in CIA combat gear, broke away and jogged over.
"For cryin' out loud, Teal'c! What did she do?" the man cried, pulling his helmet off. Sydney was astonished at how much the girl resembled her father.
"Sydney! Vaughn. " Bristo joined them, "Sloan?"
"He's not here" Vaughn answered.
"It was Derevco. She got away" Sydney told him, then pulled Charlie forward.
"This is what Sloan bought. Derevco intercepted him" O'Neill looked past Teal'c's shoulder.
"Charlie?" Charlie smiled.
"Jack!" he said. The other two men removed their helmets too.
"Charlie! How are you?" the one with the glasses said.
"I am well, Dr. Jackson" Charlie replied.
"Genetic coding?" Bristo asked of his daughter.
"Yeah" Sydney answered, "They wanted O'Neills; too" The girl's father's head snapped up.
"They were unsuccesful, O'Neill" Teal's assured him. A couple of men were coming with a gurney for her. The other two men seemed divided about where to go. The doctor ended up talking to Charlie while the other supervised Cassi's getting strapped into the gurney.
"Uh, Sydney, Vaughn, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill and Greg" Bristo made the introductions. The two nodded at all of them.
"Anything we need to know before we move in?" Bristo asked.
"Derevco's gone, Sloan and Sark don't appear to have anything to do with the whole thing. SOme unconcious guards" Vaughn answered.
"Daddy?' It was verbal and mental. Jack jogged quickly to the gurney which was almost in the helicopter now, everyone else following too. The happy(er) father looked down.
"Welcome back" he said. The girl smiled up tiredly.
"You're late"
"You were supposed to wait for me to come rescue you"
"I got bored"
"Bored?" Jackson and Greg exclaimed at the same time. Cass turned her head to the side.
"Uncle Danny! I must admit to surprise" she said, but they could tell she was pleased.
"It was believed I couldn't screw this one up" the man replied jokingly. The other man, much closer to Cassi's age, swept a carressing hand across her brow.
"Greg?" she tried to turn her head to see, but her father stepped back so he could move into a better position. Only the SGC people realized the signifigance.
"Are you alright?" the boy asked tenderly.
"Yeah. I'm just a little hungry" Cass answere flippantly. Greg smiled obligingly and kissed her forehead.
"We really should get going" Bristo told them. The rest of the CIA men had disappered into the castle.
"Wait! Sydney, Vaughn?" Cassi called. The SGC people backed away as they approached. Cass was pale again, and she was starting to look as if she'd lost weight. Her hair was dirty and matted and cuts and bruises still littered her skin. Even so, with that smile, you could see the beauty she was.
You can't tell she told them secretly Not even my own father She made sure to move her mouth so it appeared she was speaking in order to fool those who would recognize her using telepathy. She inserted the importance of the order into their minds. She was prepared to take more drastic measures, but she didn't want to. Sydney and Vaughn looked at each other, then nodded.
"A pleasure working with you both" she added quietly.
"So it was" Teal'c added, having drawn closer. The four realized they most likely would never see each other again.
"Sydney, we really need to go" Bristo said from behind.
"You're breaking up the band, Yoko" the colonel retorted. Bristo slid a gaze at him and didn't roll his eyes.
"Cassi, Teal'c" Vaughn shook the man's hand and together the CIA agents turned and walked away.
We'll be in touch! They both stopped and turned back slightly. Their eye's met Cassi's; she winked and they smiled.
