Part 1 - Divided We Fall
Chapter 1 - Live and Learn
"Carter," O'Neill said as they trudged through the dense scrub land of P4C 237, "remind me why we're here again?"
Carter smiled lightly to herself and pushed passed a fallen log. "To recover the equipment we left here last time," she replied.
"We left equipment here for a reason, of course?"
"Yes, Sir. We left it to record the planetary shift of this planet."
"And that's important because.?"
"Because as the planets all shift in the solar system, they slowly get closer to one another. If the ones closest to Earth move at a regular pace, then we could collide with one of them within the next few hundred years. With the help of this equipment, we may be able to predict how long it will take before it occurs."
"Ah. Of course. I knew that."
Sam chuckled under her breath. After nearly two hours of trekking toward the village, Jack and Sam finally reached it and recovered their gear.
Daniel was away in Chicago, seeing a friend for his birthday, or so they'd been told. Teal'c was away visiting his family and staying for a week or more, as was Daniel. Sam had remembered the equipment they were supposed to recover only a few hours before she was actually contemplating leaving the base for her downtime. When she recalled it, she informed the General and he asked that she collect it before she left for home. That as soon as it was recovered, she could leave. Jack had been present when the General told Carter, and asked that Jack accompany her - two being far safer than one. Naturally, the Colonel hadn't objected and they set off on the journey together, mid-morning. It was now 12:20 and they'd only just reached the village and got their gear back from the pleasant villagers. "Thanks again," Jack said as they turned to leave and the leader of the village waved them goodbye. Once they were a few hundred meters out of sight and earshot, the leader turned to the two men by his right side.
"Track them down and bring them to me," he told them calmly and they nodded. "They will not leave this planet alive."
"Yes, Maldo," they replied in sync and then left his company.
Maldo was and had been the leader of the village for as long as anyone in it could recall. Before him, his father had owned the same position. Through the generations, Maldo and his ancestors had always been leaders. Everyone in the village knew this, and respected him greatly. Far more than he deserved. His father had been an excellent leader. Fair and kind. His leadership was praised. His rule lasted many a long year. For more than four hundred years, he ruled the village and all surrounding establishments. If anyone did seek advice or knowledge, they could always, and often would, approach Maldo the Fifth for it. His wisdom exceeded their own, and his faith was known. The day of his death brought much sadness to that village and adjoining townships. The days following that were then ruled by his son, Maldo the Sixth. Initially, he followed his father's example and was a well-loved leader, just as Maldo the Fifth had been. Shortly after, only a few decades, his behaviour changed. After a long battle between a race of powerful people (unbeknownst to them, the Goa'uld) he changed into a person no one knew. His manner was no longer that of his father's. Now he was cruel. He ordered the deaths of many, for minute discrepancies between them or others. It was soon common knowledge that he was now the most disliked ruler the village had ever held. As this knowledge spread, those who had despised the past rulers for their kindness began to show themselves and ally with this new, unforgiving sovereign. His power slowly grew while the villagers continued on with their simple lives, seemingly unaware of the power gathering within their house of rule. That was until the day he declared war on another, lesser-populated planet - something no leader had ever dared before. This announcement frightened and shocked the villagers into silence. They no longer spoke to one another about how odd their leader was, or how they disliked him. This scared them in such a way that some were almost too scared to leave their homes during the day in case he spotted them and ordered their murder for some unknown reason as he had done many times before. What shocked the villagers the most was the fact that the war was declared against a peaceful race. A race they rarely heard a word from. When the war was won, Maldo and his allied forces overthrew the planet itself and claimed it as their own. The arrival of SG-1 had surprised the townships and they had welcomed them, hoping they would be the undoing of their new ruler. Unfortunately for them whilst SG-1 were there, Maldo changed his ways so they had no reason to suspect him of being anything else but a kind and friendly man. Now, as Sam and Jack walked back to the Stargate, they had seen nothing more than a pleasant village of friendly people and smiled. Finally a nice place.
If only they'd known how wrong they were.
@
Rustling within the scrub made Jack stop and grasp Sam's wrist. "Colonel?" she questioned, noticing how he shook his head slowly, flicking his eyes from side to side. "What is it, Sir?"
"I heard something," he replied.
"Maybe just an animal."
"And it didn't sound like an animal." His hand slipped slowly from her wrist and moved to his P-90.
"Colonel?" Carter persisted.
O'Neill frowned and looked at her, dropping his guard slightly and shrugging. "Just keep your eyes open, Major," O'Neill suggested cautiously.
The sinking feeling that somebody was close by, watching them, tingled at his skin and he didn't ignore it. His senses were as alert and as sharp as they always were. It nagged away at him - the sensation that he and his 2IC were being followed, watched. Just as they both seemed to have settled back into a silent calm, a dart zoomed out from the bushes. It hit Sam in the neck and didn't take long to take effect. After no more than a minute, she was slumped on the ground. Jack dropped to the ground behind some shrubs immediately; his eyes scrutinized the bushes in search of the sniper. The decent was sharp, but so was the point of the dart, hitting his throat as he went. He grabbed at it and removed it. Jack had barely been searching the bushes for thirty seconds before an identical dart found its way through the shrubs and hit his arm. He had no time to grab at this one. It had overtaken his consciousness too quickly. As a result, he joined his second in command on the ground.
With a quick smile from their intermediate assassins, their bodies were collected and taken to the one who had requested them.
@
O'Neill and Carter woke up in a darkened cell. O'Neill rubbed fiercely at his eyes as he sat up in his cage. He saw his 2IC in the cage beside his and noticed she was still unconscious. "Carter," he said softly so as not to attract unnecessary attention, while he pushed his arm through the cages' bars and through to Sam. She was leaning in an uncomfortable looking position against the wooden, vertical bars of her enclosure. The cages were joined by one neutral wall of wooden bars, shared by them both. Sam was leaning against the wall adjacent to this wall, opposite the door to the enclosure. Jack shook Sam gently, interested to know her current medical status. She jerked her head suddenly and groaned.
"Colonel?" her voice crackled out of her throat as she slowly opened her eyes and blinked fervently to focus them.
"Yeah," he confirmed, "you ok?"
Rubbing a hand at the side of her head, Carter nodded. "Yes, Sir," she replied uncertainly. "How are you?"
"Peachy."
"Sir, we've been disarmed."
"Yep, I know."
Jack took a moment to scale their surroundings. Small, plain and quiet. "Looks like we might be spending the night," he commented when noticing the movement outside, through the small window on the left wall of their cell. Sam was beginning to take control of the sick feelings in her head and sat up properly. She too, took in hers and her Colonel's surroundings. Nothing exciting, that was for sure. Bland walls, and with little light, it wouldn't have mattered if Michelangelo had painted the ceiling.
"Think they could've at least brightened up the place," Jack complained. Apparently, their voices could be heard from the outside of their cell. A heavily built man, wielding a whip of some kind, entered and provided more light by leaving the entrance open.
"Fetch Maldo," he spoke loudly to others positioned outside of the cell.
Jack and Sam saw the movement as the other guards left to fill out their orders. "Nice of you to come visit," O'Neill said dryly.
The guard was blasé to the Colonel's comment, far more interested in the Major. His light green eyes settled on her and seemed to give her the once over - as if checking to see she was real. Sam looked away in disgust, her own eyes finding her Colonel. He shrugged. Another thickly built man entered the cell, but was dressed far more importantly compared with the guard surveying Sam. This man wore dress robes of some description. A deep crimson in colour, with swirling patterns over the sleeves and collar, rising high at the back of his neck. The robe itself brushed the ground in its length, the sleeves also passing the man's fingertips. His bare feet could just be seen beyond the hem of the robe. It made light swishing sounds as he walked into the cell and stopped a few feet from the join in the cages holding Jack and Sam.
"My prisoners," the man sneered with an eerie smile, "welcome." He gestured around them, as though it was an impressive sight. He began to twirl his long necklace around the hand that had made the gesture. Sam and Jack were eluded as to whether or not they were expected to say anything. Just as the shabbily dressed guards' had, the robed man's scrutinizing eyes laid upon Sam. His unnatural calm sent an uncomfortable feeling through the cell. His guards appeared to be enthralled in his every move - their eyes never drawing away from him.
"My name is Maldo," the man said suddenly, but his voice was still and quiet. O'Neill and Carter still remained silent. "Your names, I already know."
"You told us your name was Chey," Sam spoke up finally. Maldo blinked abnormally slow and then looked up to her.
"That is correct," he responded. "Why did you lie to us?"
"I need not justify my actions to you. You are my prisoners. And you will not leave this planet alive, I assure you."
"Fun as it sounds, I think we'll just go and leave you to do.whatever it is you do here," Jack said.
Maldo smiled eerily again and ran a finger around the rim of his mouth before responding. "If you believe you can talk your way out of this," he said slowly, "it shall be best if I inform you now that it is not a wise thing to believe, Colonel."
There was a long silence in the cell, where both guards minded Sam with their eyes and Maldo examined his prisoners. His dark eyes scanned them both, as though finding faults in them. Taking notes in his own mind as if he were a judge in a cat show.
"Take the woman now," he said after a long while.
His guards obeyed. Opening the door to Sam's section of the cage, they pulled her from it and bound her wrists before leading her away and out of the cell.
Maldo remained inside for a moment, alone with Jack. "If you believe you can save yourself and your female friend, I warn you. This is not a game. You cannot use words to gain an exit. Nor can you use skill or cunning. This will be one place you will not escape, Colonel. It would be wise for you to accept this now, rather than denying the truth." Maldo's face was as close as it could get to the door to Jack's portion of the joined cage. Jack leaned forward; his face just as close to the door as Maldo's was on the other side. It was a long while before he said anything.
"Bite me," O'Neill said finally, his voice reeking of sarcasm, but using the same calm Maldo assumed. The robed man half-smiled, wryly, and then left, leaving Jack to wonder what was in store for Sam.
@
It was now Tuesday on Earth - one day had passed since Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter had left for P4C 237. General Hammond was beginning to get concerned for them. The mission was only to be a few hours, possibly ten hours at the very most - but a whole day had passed now. It was far too long.
"General," Sergeant Davis said as he entered Hammond's office. The General looked up.
"Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter have been gone exactly twenty-four hours now, Sir. What would you like us to do?"
Hammond stood up and walked out from his office to the Control Room with Sergeant Davis in toe. "Send a MALP through to P4C 237 and relay a message to them," the General instructed. "We'll go from there."
"Yes, Sir," Davis responded. "Prepare the MALP."
The Gate being over a two-hour walk away from the village Jack and Sam were now held captive in, the SGC received no response from their missing personnel. When the wormhole disengaged, Hammond went back to his office with his mind reeling. What could possibly have happened to them? At the moment, it wasn't a matter of what; it was a matter of who.
@
Sam had been gone over three hours and Jack was really beginning to worry. Being confined inside of a cage wasn't helping matters for the impatient man, but his second in command being gone for this long was worse in comparison.
Over three hours before, when Sam had been taken away by Maldo and his guards, she'd been taken to be redressed. A small tent of women with handmade clothing, much the same as their own, told Sam to be quiet and gave her the clothes to wear. At first, Sam was reluctant, but the more she cooperated, the more the women talked to her about their unruly sovereign. They spoke of the generation before and Maldo the Fifth. Spoke of the change in Maldo the Sixth, how after the war he had become a different man. It was then Sam told the women of the Goa'uld. She explained to them what they were like, what they did and that she had once possessed one. She added the fact that she could now sense the presence of the Goa'uld, and that when Maldo was in the room, she had felt the presence of a Goa'uld symbiote. The women were initially disbelieving, but the more Sam explained, the more they believed. After some time in the tent of women, Sam was taken away to another group of women working in a field. This planet was much the same as P3X 593. Women appeared to be evicted from the main parts of the village and worked out in the fields and other places. The women were there to serve. That was all. Sam's ankles were chained together by a small length of chain that was padlocked, giving her just enough freedom to walk without falling. All the women working in the field were monitored by guards at the boundary of the field. They were instructed that they were only to stop work when the suns went down. On P4C 237, there were two suns and two moons. When the first moon rose, they were permitted to stop working and sleep in their homes until the next morning when the first sun rose. Then, they were back to work again. The same routine continued for six days of the week. There were only six days in a week on P4C 237. One day every two weeks, a few women were allowed to stay at home and rest. Every woman had one day off for every fortnight. That was their only time off work, aside from the night time when they were so exhausted they could barely stay awake long enough to eat something.
After two days of being left alone in the cell without food and only the occasional cup of water, Jack was taken to Maldo. He had decided that Jack would be a perfect assistant. There were several servants that remained around Maldo all day long. It was their only job. Their ankles were chained together with enough length to move; much the same were their wrists. There were no worries of the servants escaping. The last one to escape had been captured and brought back to Maldo within hours and tortured to death. All other servants were required to oversee the torture, as a lesson to them of what would happen if they tried the same thing. From then on, no servant had ever again tried to escape.
Jack's job was simple on the surface. Do everything Maldo said, when he said it, without being slow or defiant, and he could live to see another day. However, this relatively simple job was made excruciatingly difficult with a leader such as Maldo, and having jobs to do whilst he had his servants' ankles and wrists chained in case they tried anything. He had his servants fanning him from the heat, scrubbing the floors on their hands and knees, cleaning the animal enclosures, polishing his dress shoes, washing his clothes and a score of other tasks with new ones being added daily. Sometimes each hour if his mood was particularly bad. These tasks may have seemed petty, but when they were assessed after they were finished, it made it difficult. If everything was not as Maldo saw fit, the job would either be repeated, the servant would go without food for days, they would be chained in a cell for a week, or - and this happened most often - they would receive a beating that left them in such pain they could barely open their eyes.
Maldo was the most unforgiving leader the people of P4C 237 had ever seen. The end of his reign was well anticipated, but having his followers guarding him at all times, the villagers were far too frightened to approach him or attempt to murder him. If unsuccessful, their punishment would be unimaginable, and to the villagers, it just wasn't worth the risk.
Chapter 1 - Live and Learn
"Carter," O'Neill said as they trudged through the dense scrub land of P4C 237, "remind me why we're here again?"
Carter smiled lightly to herself and pushed passed a fallen log. "To recover the equipment we left here last time," she replied.
"We left equipment here for a reason, of course?"
"Yes, Sir. We left it to record the planetary shift of this planet."
"And that's important because.?"
"Because as the planets all shift in the solar system, they slowly get closer to one another. If the ones closest to Earth move at a regular pace, then we could collide with one of them within the next few hundred years. With the help of this equipment, we may be able to predict how long it will take before it occurs."
"Ah. Of course. I knew that."
Sam chuckled under her breath. After nearly two hours of trekking toward the village, Jack and Sam finally reached it and recovered their gear.
Daniel was away in Chicago, seeing a friend for his birthday, or so they'd been told. Teal'c was away visiting his family and staying for a week or more, as was Daniel. Sam had remembered the equipment they were supposed to recover only a few hours before she was actually contemplating leaving the base for her downtime. When she recalled it, she informed the General and he asked that she collect it before she left for home. That as soon as it was recovered, she could leave. Jack had been present when the General told Carter, and asked that Jack accompany her - two being far safer than one. Naturally, the Colonel hadn't objected and they set off on the journey together, mid-morning. It was now 12:20 and they'd only just reached the village and got their gear back from the pleasant villagers. "Thanks again," Jack said as they turned to leave and the leader of the village waved them goodbye. Once they were a few hundred meters out of sight and earshot, the leader turned to the two men by his right side.
"Track them down and bring them to me," he told them calmly and they nodded. "They will not leave this planet alive."
"Yes, Maldo," they replied in sync and then left his company.
Maldo was and had been the leader of the village for as long as anyone in it could recall. Before him, his father had owned the same position. Through the generations, Maldo and his ancestors had always been leaders. Everyone in the village knew this, and respected him greatly. Far more than he deserved. His father had been an excellent leader. Fair and kind. His leadership was praised. His rule lasted many a long year. For more than four hundred years, he ruled the village and all surrounding establishments. If anyone did seek advice or knowledge, they could always, and often would, approach Maldo the Fifth for it. His wisdom exceeded their own, and his faith was known. The day of his death brought much sadness to that village and adjoining townships. The days following that were then ruled by his son, Maldo the Sixth. Initially, he followed his father's example and was a well-loved leader, just as Maldo the Fifth had been. Shortly after, only a few decades, his behaviour changed. After a long battle between a race of powerful people (unbeknownst to them, the Goa'uld) he changed into a person no one knew. His manner was no longer that of his father's. Now he was cruel. He ordered the deaths of many, for minute discrepancies between them or others. It was soon common knowledge that he was now the most disliked ruler the village had ever held. As this knowledge spread, those who had despised the past rulers for their kindness began to show themselves and ally with this new, unforgiving sovereign. His power slowly grew while the villagers continued on with their simple lives, seemingly unaware of the power gathering within their house of rule. That was until the day he declared war on another, lesser-populated planet - something no leader had ever dared before. This announcement frightened and shocked the villagers into silence. They no longer spoke to one another about how odd their leader was, or how they disliked him. This scared them in such a way that some were almost too scared to leave their homes during the day in case he spotted them and ordered their murder for some unknown reason as he had done many times before. What shocked the villagers the most was the fact that the war was declared against a peaceful race. A race they rarely heard a word from. When the war was won, Maldo and his allied forces overthrew the planet itself and claimed it as their own. The arrival of SG-1 had surprised the townships and they had welcomed them, hoping they would be the undoing of their new ruler. Unfortunately for them whilst SG-1 were there, Maldo changed his ways so they had no reason to suspect him of being anything else but a kind and friendly man. Now, as Sam and Jack walked back to the Stargate, they had seen nothing more than a pleasant village of friendly people and smiled. Finally a nice place.
If only they'd known how wrong they were.
@
Rustling within the scrub made Jack stop and grasp Sam's wrist. "Colonel?" she questioned, noticing how he shook his head slowly, flicking his eyes from side to side. "What is it, Sir?"
"I heard something," he replied.
"Maybe just an animal."
"And it didn't sound like an animal." His hand slipped slowly from her wrist and moved to his P-90.
"Colonel?" Carter persisted.
O'Neill frowned and looked at her, dropping his guard slightly and shrugging. "Just keep your eyes open, Major," O'Neill suggested cautiously.
The sinking feeling that somebody was close by, watching them, tingled at his skin and he didn't ignore it. His senses were as alert and as sharp as they always were. It nagged away at him - the sensation that he and his 2IC were being followed, watched. Just as they both seemed to have settled back into a silent calm, a dart zoomed out from the bushes. It hit Sam in the neck and didn't take long to take effect. After no more than a minute, she was slumped on the ground. Jack dropped to the ground behind some shrubs immediately; his eyes scrutinized the bushes in search of the sniper. The decent was sharp, but so was the point of the dart, hitting his throat as he went. He grabbed at it and removed it. Jack had barely been searching the bushes for thirty seconds before an identical dart found its way through the shrubs and hit his arm. He had no time to grab at this one. It had overtaken his consciousness too quickly. As a result, he joined his second in command on the ground.
With a quick smile from their intermediate assassins, their bodies were collected and taken to the one who had requested them.
@
O'Neill and Carter woke up in a darkened cell. O'Neill rubbed fiercely at his eyes as he sat up in his cage. He saw his 2IC in the cage beside his and noticed she was still unconscious. "Carter," he said softly so as not to attract unnecessary attention, while he pushed his arm through the cages' bars and through to Sam. She was leaning in an uncomfortable looking position against the wooden, vertical bars of her enclosure. The cages were joined by one neutral wall of wooden bars, shared by them both. Sam was leaning against the wall adjacent to this wall, opposite the door to the enclosure. Jack shook Sam gently, interested to know her current medical status. She jerked her head suddenly and groaned.
"Colonel?" her voice crackled out of her throat as she slowly opened her eyes and blinked fervently to focus them.
"Yeah," he confirmed, "you ok?"
Rubbing a hand at the side of her head, Carter nodded. "Yes, Sir," she replied uncertainly. "How are you?"
"Peachy."
"Sir, we've been disarmed."
"Yep, I know."
Jack took a moment to scale their surroundings. Small, plain and quiet. "Looks like we might be spending the night," he commented when noticing the movement outside, through the small window on the left wall of their cell. Sam was beginning to take control of the sick feelings in her head and sat up properly. She too, took in hers and her Colonel's surroundings. Nothing exciting, that was for sure. Bland walls, and with little light, it wouldn't have mattered if Michelangelo had painted the ceiling.
"Think they could've at least brightened up the place," Jack complained. Apparently, their voices could be heard from the outside of their cell. A heavily built man, wielding a whip of some kind, entered and provided more light by leaving the entrance open.
"Fetch Maldo," he spoke loudly to others positioned outside of the cell.
Jack and Sam saw the movement as the other guards left to fill out their orders. "Nice of you to come visit," O'Neill said dryly.
The guard was blasé to the Colonel's comment, far more interested in the Major. His light green eyes settled on her and seemed to give her the once over - as if checking to see she was real. Sam looked away in disgust, her own eyes finding her Colonel. He shrugged. Another thickly built man entered the cell, but was dressed far more importantly compared with the guard surveying Sam. This man wore dress robes of some description. A deep crimson in colour, with swirling patterns over the sleeves and collar, rising high at the back of his neck. The robe itself brushed the ground in its length, the sleeves also passing the man's fingertips. His bare feet could just be seen beyond the hem of the robe. It made light swishing sounds as he walked into the cell and stopped a few feet from the join in the cages holding Jack and Sam.
"My prisoners," the man sneered with an eerie smile, "welcome." He gestured around them, as though it was an impressive sight. He began to twirl his long necklace around the hand that had made the gesture. Sam and Jack were eluded as to whether or not they were expected to say anything. Just as the shabbily dressed guards' had, the robed man's scrutinizing eyes laid upon Sam. His unnatural calm sent an uncomfortable feeling through the cell. His guards appeared to be enthralled in his every move - their eyes never drawing away from him.
"My name is Maldo," the man said suddenly, but his voice was still and quiet. O'Neill and Carter still remained silent. "Your names, I already know."
"You told us your name was Chey," Sam spoke up finally. Maldo blinked abnormally slow and then looked up to her.
"That is correct," he responded. "Why did you lie to us?"
"I need not justify my actions to you. You are my prisoners. And you will not leave this planet alive, I assure you."
"Fun as it sounds, I think we'll just go and leave you to do.whatever it is you do here," Jack said.
Maldo smiled eerily again and ran a finger around the rim of his mouth before responding. "If you believe you can talk your way out of this," he said slowly, "it shall be best if I inform you now that it is not a wise thing to believe, Colonel."
There was a long silence in the cell, where both guards minded Sam with their eyes and Maldo examined his prisoners. His dark eyes scanned them both, as though finding faults in them. Taking notes in his own mind as if he were a judge in a cat show.
"Take the woman now," he said after a long while.
His guards obeyed. Opening the door to Sam's section of the cage, they pulled her from it and bound her wrists before leading her away and out of the cell.
Maldo remained inside for a moment, alone with Jack. "If you believe you can save yourself and your female friend, I warn you. This is not a game. You cannot use words to gain an exit. Nor can you use skill or cunning. This will be one place you will not escape, Colonel. It would be wise for you to accept this now, rather than denying the truth." Maldo's face was as close as it could get to the door to Jack's portion of the joined cage. Jack leaned forward; his face just as close to the door as Maldo's was on the other side. It was a long while before he said anything.
"Bite me," O'Neill said finally, his voice reeking of sarcasm, but using the same calm Maldo assumed. The robed man half-smiled, wryly, and then left, leaving Jack to wonder what was in store for Sam.
@
It was now Tuesday on Earth - one day had passed since Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter had left for P4C 237. General Hammond was beginning to get concerned for them. The mission was only to be a few hours, possibly ten hours at the very most - but a whole day had passed now. It was far too long.
"General," Sergeant Davis said as he entered Hammond's office. The General looked up.
"Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter have been gone exactly twenty-four hours now, Sir. What would you like us to do?"
Hammond stood up and walked out from his office to the Control Room with Sergeant Davis in toe. "Send a MALP through to P4C 237 and relay a message to them," the General instructed. "We'll go from there."
"Yes, Sir," Davis responded. "Prepare the MALP."
The Gate being over a two-hour walk away from the village Jack and Sam were now held captive in, the SGC received no response from their missing personnel. When the wormhole disengaged, Hammond went back to his office with his mind reeling. What could possibly have happened to them? At the moment, it wasn't a matter of what; it was a matter of who.
@
Sam had been gone over three hours and Jack was really beginning to worry. Being confined inside of a cage wasn't helping matters for the impatient man, but his second in command being gone for this long was worse in comparison.
Over three hours before, when Sam had been taken away by Maldo and his guards, she'd been taken to be redressed. A small tent of women with handmade clothing, much the same as their own, told Sam to be quiet and gave her the clothes to wear. At first, Sam was reluctant, but the more she cooperated, the more the women talked to her about their unruly sovereign. They spoke of the generation before and Maldo the Fifth. Spoke of the change in Maldo the Sixth, how after the war he had become a different man. It was then Sam told the women of the Goa'uld. She explained to them what they were like, what they did and that she had once possessed one. She added the fact that she could now sense the presence of the Goa'uld, and that when Maldo was in the room, she had felt the presence of a Goa'uld symbiote. The women were initially disbelieving, but the more Sam explained, the more they believed. After some time in the tent of women, Sam was taken away to another group of women working in a field. This planet was much the same as P3X 593. Women appeared to be evicted from the main parts of the village and worked out in the fields and other places. The women were there to serve. That was all. Sam's ankles were chained together by a small length of chain that was padlocked, giving her just enough freedom to walk without falling. All the women working in the field were monitored by guards at the boundary of the field. They were instructed that they were only to stop work when the suns went down. On P4C 237, there were two suns and two moons. When the first moon rose, they were permitted to stop working and sleep in their homes until the next morning when the first sun rose. Then, they were back to work again. The same routine continued for six days of the week. There were only six days in a week on P4C 237. One day every two weeks, a few women were allowed to stay at home and rest. Every woman had one day off for every fortnight. That was their only time off work, aside from the night time when they were so exhausted they could barely stay awake long enough to eat something.
After two days of being left alone in the cell without food and only the occasional cup of water, Jack was taken to Maldo. He had decided that Jack would be a perfect assistant. There were several servants that remained around Maldo all day long. It was their only job. Their ankles were chained together with enough length to move; much the same were their wrists. There were no worries of the servants escaping. The last one to escape had been captured and brought back to Maldo within hours and tortured to death. All other servants were required to oversee the torture, as a lesson to them of what would happen if they tried the same thing. From then on, no servant had ever again tried to escape.
Jack's job was simple on the surface. Do everything Maldo said, when he said it, without being slow or defiant, and he could live to see another day. However, this relatively simple job was made excruciatingly difficult with a leader such as Maldo, and having jobs to do whilst he had his servants' ankles and wrists chained in case they tried anything. He had his servants fanning him from the heat, scrubbing the floors on their hands and knees, cleaning the animal enclosures, polishing his dress shoes, washing his clothes and a score of other tasks with new ones being added daily. Sometimes each hour if his mood was particularly bad. These tasks may have seemed petty, but when they were assessed after they were finished, it made it difficult. If everything was not as Maldo saw fit, the job would either be repeated, the servant would go without food for days, they would be chained in a cell for a week, or - and this happened most often - they would receive a beating that left them in such pain they could barely open their eyes.
Maldo was the most unforgiving leader the people of P4C 237 had ever seen. The end of his reign was well anticipated, but having his followers guarding him at all times, the villagers were far too frightened to approach him or attempt to murder him. If unsuccessful, their punishment would be unimaginable, and to the villagers, it just wasn't worth the risk.
