Jack looked up at the face before him through half-closed eyelids. What he saw was his second in command: his friend. But this wasn't her. This wasn't the friend he knew so well. This wasn't Carter. This was an impostor, and no matter how much he hated the Goa'uld, there was a part of Jack that couldn't do anything, because this particular one had the face of his friend, and for that he hated them even more.
Through his current semi-conscious state Jack had recognised the control room and the closed doors at the far end. Three people he couldn't make out looked as though they had been shot down and were in various places about the floor. He could hear faint noises from the other side of the door behind him, possibly voices, but they seemed too far away for him to hear specific words. Sam had locked all the doors in the base and the closest anyone could get was outside the control room, in the corridor by the Gate room.
Sam stood up again and made her way back to the computer. Jack watched her as the blast doors closed, and tried to stand up. The thump he made, as he quickly slumped back to the floor in defeat, made Sam look back in his direction and she walked back, kneeling in front of him. She grabbed his face and pulled it towards her own. She spoke, but not in the voice that Jack was so used to hearing. It was the Goa'uld: the impostor. "You are weak. You were a weak host. This one is much stronger." Jack's eyes flickered shut as she spoke, and she jolted his head forward, waking him up with the pain that shot down his neck. He winced at the feeling and once again he focused on Sam, her eyes boring into his face with every second. "This one has a strong mind. I have not yet been able to break through to the information I need, but all Tau'ri are weak when compared to the Goa'uld. I will break through, it is only a matter of time." She threw his head back and stared at him for a few seconds longer. Jack's head was aching and he couldn't move.
"What the hell… did you do to me?" he managed between breaths. Sam smirked and brought up a syringe into Jack's view.
"It's amazing what effect your medical solutions can have when mixed with a small amount of nishta." Her face became serious as she inspected the liquid still in the syringe, "I have no idea what further effect this will have, though I suspect it would probably kill you." She looked back at Jack's face and lowered her voice to almost a whisper, "I should warn you I will take great pleasure in administering this to you should you become, shall we say, uncooperative." Jack swallowed hard. He hated to be like this, without defence and powerless to stop one Goa'uld after he had helped defeat many others with much more power. It's not Carter. It's not Carter, he kept telling himself.
"What do you want?" he finally asked. Sam smiled a dominant smile and stood again.
"You will learn, in time, Tau'ri. As for now I suggest you sleep. You will require your strength soon enough." With that, she took out another needle and injected Jack's left arm. He passed out with a fight before he had chance to protest. Sam then picked up a Zat from the side, stood back, pointed it at Jack and disabled the lock on the door. The door opened to reveal Teal'c, his Zat raised ready to shoot. Hammond and four SFs were behind him. Teal'c gave Sam a sceptical look.
"Major Carter?" he asked
"It's okay," she replied, "I stopped him." Teal'c looked down at Jack laying on the floor, and back up at Sam as the SFs pulled Jack, and the others who had been shot down, up from the floor and began to carry them out of the control room, followed by Hammond. This Goa'uld wasn't going to fool them again.
"Where is Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked. Sam lowered the Zat.
"I haven't seen him. Should I have?" She replied, shrugging it off. Teal'c walked through to Sam.
"He came this way in pursuit of O'Neill."
"Well I haven't seen him. He hasn't been here." She stated simply. She brushed past Teal'c on her way out of the control room.
"Major Carter. Stop where you are." Sam halted at the command. "Turn around slowly." Sam did just that, a hostile smirk on her face. Teal'c kept his Zat trained on Sam and held out his left hand. "Give me the Zat'n'ktel." Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Give it to me," he said, his tone unchanged, "I will not hesitate to shoot you."
In one swift movement Sam brought up the Zat and shot Teal'c before he had chance to react. He fell to the floor and Sam grabbed hold of his arms. She dragged him around the corner out of sight, and went back in to the control room. She walked with purpose to the computer, turned the oxygen in the Gate room back up to normal level and walked through the now open door.
She had already lost one bargaining chip. She wasn't going to lose another.
A/N: Hope you like it. Please review!! I'm trying to work on longer chapters at the moment, as far as time will allow. Apologies to the Danny fans for chapter 12, I was miffed off. Apologies to Jack fans for chapter 13. I was in an evil mood. Alexa got me back for 12 though (you evil evil girl!) in her fic, which any Blue fan should read coz it's great! It's called The Loss by Pheonix Lioncourt and it rules!!
