Chapter Fourteen: Mind Games
Samantha Carter leapt up from her chair so abruptly that it overturned on its side and slid clattering across the floor. The initial shock and horror of seeing Scorpius was overwhelming for her, realizing that he still had her. And this SGC, including all of the people about her, was nothing more than a mere illusion. As if to highlight that, General Hammond, O'Neill, Daniel, and Teal'c suddenly froze in position as if someone paused their movements with a remote. There was no one here to come to her aid.
"Stay the hell away from me!" Carter snarled as she backed away.
"Ah, Samantha," Scorpius said as he stepped towards her. "You must learn that you are in no position to resist me."
Carter quickly moved around the room, keeping the table between her and Scorpius. However, the Scarren hybrid just sighed in annoyance. He moved towards the blond Major and walked through the table like a predator stalking wounded prey.
Horrified, Carter stepped away from the advancing Scorpius until she backed right up against a wall.
"What do you want from me?" she pleaded.
"What do I want?" Scorpius smirked darkly. He moved up to her placing the palms of his hands against the wall on either side of her. He stared into her eyes. "My dear, I want anything and everything that you know about the stargate."
"You have it working," Carter said nervously, struggling to control her rising fear. "You don't need me."
"Yes, I do need you," Scorpius said. "How many worlds exist with a functioning stargate?"
Carter shook her head. "I don't know, I don't think that anyone does."
"That's a lie, my dear," Scorpius growled, leaning closer to her. "Don't lie to me. I can sense that your will is strong, but you can't possibly win. Not against me."
Carter turned her head away from the smiling nightmare confronting her, shutting her eyes. He was very close now, so close she could feel his breath on her face. Carter heard him sniffing the air, to take in her scent. She was panicking now, her heart was racing and she couldn't think. She needed room to breath and regain some composure. With a trembling voice, Carter uttered quietly.
"P3W-451."
"What was that?" Scorpius said, backing away slightly.
"It's the co-ordinates to a world." Carter opened her eyes, glancing back at him.
"And what is on this planet?"
"Something that you will like," She whispered. "Something special just for you."
Scorpius watched her for signs of deceit. "And what would that be?"
Carter grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed Scorpius in the crotch with all her strength, and screamed. "A fucking Black Hole!!!"
Scorpius was caught by surprise as he doubled over when Carter pummelled him with all of her strength, delivering a series of blows to his head, all the time shouting.
"This is for Teal'c! This is for Hailey! This is for me, you sick bastard!!"
Carter had gone into a complete berserker rage. The signs of the stress and her experience in the aurora chair were clearly evident. Had this been a real environment, against an average man, Samantha Carter's numerous adrenaline powered punches would have been severely injured or maybe even killed. But this was an artificially created fantasy world, and she was facing Scorpius. Who was the ruling puppet master in this realm.
With a roar, Scorpius shrugged off her blows and struck Carter in her stomach with such force, that it slammed her back into the wall. She collapsed into a heap on the floor, holding herself stomach while giving a series of wrenching coughs.
Scorpius was now fully enraged. He snarled angrily, but managed maintained control over his enraged Scarren side.
"Do I have to prove that I'm superior to you, both in intelligence and strength?" he roared.
That first thing Carter did when she caught her breath was to snicker as she carefully rose to her feet. She held her hands pressed against the wall for support before saying, "If you're so smart, you wouldn't be needing me."
Scorpius didn't look amused. "You are truly from Crichton's species. You have his tongue."
Samantha grinned. "You've said that name before. Who or what is a Crichton?"
"No one to be concerned about," Scorpius sneered slightly before stepping towards Carter again. "But you are forgetting the rules here. I ask the questions and you answer them."
Carter cocked her head to one side. "Thanks for the tip," She said before pushing off the wall and slamming her foot to the side of Scorpius' temple. "How's that for an answer!"
As Scorpius staggered backwards, Carter bolted for the door and ran down the corridor. The SGC, this artificially created SGC was now devoid of life. She rounded the corner and found Scorpius waiting for her. Carter managed to skid to a stop before crashing into him.
"I seem to recall something that I learned from John, about Earth monster movies," Scorpius said darkly, his eyes fixed on Carter. He stepped towards her even as she backed away saying. "When a woman is being chased, no matter how fast she runs she can never get away. So what's the point in trying to run?"
Carter shook her head fiercely. "I won't tell you anything so you might as well kill me now!"
"Samantha, my dear lovely little human," Scorpius sighed. "Death is not an option for you. You see, what I want from you is your stargate secrets...and you."
"I'd rather die!!" She screamed.
"No, Samantha," Scorpius whispered softly as he slowly reached to caress her face. "I said that's not an option that I'm offering. You have such lovely eyes..."
She recoiled from his outstretched hand and turned to flee in the other direction screaming at the top of her lungs. "NO!"
He watched her racing away and Scorpius' smile grew wider as he said quietly. "This is far easier than I had hoped."
***
Up in the Tobin's mainbase Command and Control area, a Peacekeeper Lieutenant approached Commander Arin.
"Commander," the lieutenant said, as he snapped to attention before his superior officer. "The Command Carrier has reported that they have detected a Goa'uld shuttle under cloak that attempted to enter into orbit. Prowlers and Marauders were dispatched in pursuit, but our ships where intercepted and destroyed by four fighters of unknown origin. The unknowns and the shuttle escaped into deep space before reinforcements could arrive."
Commander Arin frowned at hearing this. He hated mysteries. "Unknown origin? Do you have any information on these unknowns?"
"Very little sir, but a recovery team brought back some of the wreckage of our destroyed ships." The Lieutenant paused with some concern. "Initial examination showed that Goa'uld explosive was involved."
"Ah, naquadah. That's nothing new."
"There's more, sir. Metal scaring on the wreckage also showed what the Engineering and Weapons people believe to be the use of pulse lasers."
"Are you sure?" Commander Arin demanded.
Several cycles ago, Peacekeepers experimented with pulsed lasers that were amplified several times greater than the strongest conventional laser, giving both superior range and hitting power. Unfortunately all the prototypes built were a failure. The techs found the pulse laser unreliable, consuming too much energy to be powered by conventional means and the best design that they could come up with had a poor rate of fire. The idea of small alien fighters being armed with such weaponry could prove to be a problem if these beings had larger ones mounted on warships.
"The technicians are doing the final analysis, but they are most certain that..."
"I want that report in full handed to me one arn ago!" Arin shouted. "Now move!"
***
Scorpius remained perfectly still seated in his chair in deep concentration. All his energies were focused into breaking the will of the blond human female at his feet. Then he sensed someone entering the stargate chamber. His expression of concentration slowly gave way to annoyance. He opened his eyes and found Commander Arin standing at attention with the look of utter dread on his face.
Commander looked straight ahead to avoid the piercing eyes of Scorpius. "Sorry to disturb you sir, but there was an incident in orbit one arn ago."
"What sort of incident, Commander?" Scorpius said.
"A Goa'uld shuttle was detected in orbit and when our ships gave pursuit they were intercepted by four unidentified fighters using missiles with naquadah warheads and pulse lasers."
"You interrupted me for that?" Scorpius growled with soft menace.
"Sir, they're using advanced weaponry and could be a threat. Also, a Peacekeeper cruiser squadron has failed to report in..."
"Not my concern, Commander. Now leave, I have work to do." Scorpius then refocused himself back to the sleeping form of Samantha Carter. She moaned softly as her body twitched from the nightmare intentionally inflicted on her.
"Yes, Scorpius," Commander Arin said. But before he turned to leave, he glanced one last time at the blond Human female and felt pity for her.
He was a professional soldier and commander, and he always tried to do his best to conduct himself as such. The day that Scorpius arrived at the base, and assumed authority over him and his personnel was the lowest ebb of his career. The things that Scorpius routinely did to the prisoners were horrific. He avoided this level when Scorpius was performing his interrogations. But sometimes it seemed is if Arin could hear the screams of the tortured in the upper most levels of the installation.
Commander Arin hoped Scorpius would soon find the information he wanted about the Stargate and leave his base.
He stepped out into the corridor as the huge double doors to the Stargate chamber closed behind him. If Scorpius did have any mercy at all, he'd kill the human woman after he was done, but Arin doubted it. Probably after he'd finished interrogating her, Scorpius would have another new 'Lab Assistant' then. It's what he did with females who captured his interest. And this Samantha had indeed caught Scorpius' full attention.
Yes, he felt pity for the human female.
