Author's Note: Sorry again for the delay (damn RL), and for the cliffhanger I am again about to leave you with. No fear, though. The boys will save the day before anything too much worse can happen to Sam.

Chapter 10

Jonas woke in a cold sweat, panting and looking frantically around the room. Something was very wrong.

"They have her!" Jack shouted, punching a wall.

"They have her," Jonas repeated in a whisper, jumping to his feet and making a bee-line towards Sam's room. He was not particularly surprised to see the Colonel asleep in Sam's bed, but finding him alone there… "Sir!" he hissed, shaking the man awake. "Sir, where is she?" he demanded.

"I…" Jack yawned and shook his head, trying to clear it. It took him a moment to orient himself to where he was and what was missing. "Sam," he breathed, looking around frantically. "No. No, you didn't!" he protested, jumping to his feet. "She couldn't have," he told Jonas firmly, more to convince himself that Sam would not willingly have returned to Delphi. "She's probably just using the latrine..." But the words rang false even as he spoke them.

"It might not be too late," Jonas said. "We'll get the others, search the area…"

Jack nodded and smacked his shoulder before turning and leaving the room at a run. Jonas followed just as quickly and they had soon roused the entire palace to search for her. Guards were dispatched to the Gate to prevent her from leaving if she had not already and others sent to search the Land of Darkness and the surrounding countryside.

"This is hopeless!" Daniel groaned as he and Jack walked across a field, calling for Sam as they searched. "She could have gone any time after you got there. She could have been gone for hours before you woke up."

Jack rounded on him. "You think that hasn't occurred to me?" he shouted. "Damn it, Daniel! I know this is my fault. I don't need a reminder!"

"No, Jack, I didn't mean--"

"Carter!" Jack shouted, ignoring him. He started walking again, cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting again. "Carter!"

Daniel sighed and followed, occasionally shouting Sam's name.

"Sir, you there?" Jonas' voice came over the walkie-talkie.

They had stopped long enough to grab those, but had not wasted time to change into their uniforms. Jack was suddenly struck very forcefully by how ridiculous he must have looked, walking through a wheat-field with a P-90 slung over his shoulder, wearing a toga that had a walkie-talkie and a Zat clipped to it. The insanity of that actually relieved some of the pressure he was feeling. Almost.

"Go ahead, Jonas," he sighed

"Sir, they just finished searching the palace. Calpurnia's missing, too."

"Now that can not be a coincidence," Daniel said quietly.

"Really?" Jack asked sarcastically, shaking his head. "Damn, I knew I should have confronted her with what Jonas said last night..."

"Jack, you have got to stop blaming yourself and focus on…" He trailed, off, frowning into the distance for a moment before breaking into a run.

It took Jack a moment to make out what Daniel had seen but, when he did, he broke into a run as well, ignoring the searing pain in his knee that the action always caused. A toga-clad form lay on the ground. A female toga-clad form.

"God, don't be..." he began, only to stop as he realized that the woman had long hair. Calpurnia, it had to be. Daniel was kneeling over her when he reached them.

"She's been beaten pretty badly," he announced, feeling for a pulse. "But she's still alive. Looks like she took a Zat-blast, too."

Jack blinked, trying to piece together the situation. If Calpurnia really had betrayed Sam, who had beaten Calpurnia? But if she had not, how had Apollo known where to find them?

Calpurnia moaned and rolled over, her eye-lids fluttering. "Major?" she whispered, looking around, still dazed by the effects of the Zat. "Did they... I tried to fight so she could escape, but she would not flee!" she told Jack in a desperate tone.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"I... by now they must have taken her through the Ring of the Gods."

"They?"

"Lord Apollo's Jaffa."

"What happened?" Daniel asked. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Who gives a damn!" Jack snapped. "They have her. We are going back to Earth and we are getting Hammond to give us a few SG teams and we are getting her back! You," he added, snapping his fingers at Calpurnia, whose innocence he still was not entirely convinced of. "Come on."


Calpurnia nodded meekly and rose, but her knees buckled and only Daniel's quick reflexes kept her from hitting the ground.

"Take it easy," he advised, lifting her into his arms. "Let's go."

Jack nodded and started back towards the Gate, activating his walkie-talkie as he went. "Jonas, Teal'c, Apollo has Sam. Get to the Gate ASAP."

"Understood,"  Teal'c replied.

"On my way."

"Don't wait for us. Go through, tell the General, start getting the others ready to move out." 

***

"Nice Toga, Jonas. You, too, Teal'c," Janet greeted them in the Gate-room, grinning faintly at how ridiculous they looked. The combined effect of the togas, Zats, walkie-talkies, and automatic weapons was worse than Jack had guessed. Her smile faded almost immediately as the wormhole deactivated. "Where are the others?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Daniel and the Colonel are on their way," Jonas answered quietly, not meeting her eye. "It's Sam. She..."

"Major Carter is once again Apollo's captive," Teal'c supplied when Jonas faltered.

"God," Janet whispered.

"She and Calpurnia were attacked by several Jaffa. Calpurnia will require your assistance," Teal'c continued.

"Are... are the others okay?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"They're fine," Jonas assured her quickly, squeezing her shoulder. "Calpurnia and Sam were out alone, walking."

"I can't believe she'd go out alone and unarmed!" Janet half-shouted. She was terrified for Sam's sake and anger made that easier to forget.

"What happened?" Hammond demanded, entering the Gate-room. "Where the hell are the others and why in God's name are you dressed like that?"

As Teal'c quietly relayed everything that had happened to the General, Jonas drew Janet a few feet away.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

"I... Fine, I'm fine," she assured him in a shaky voice.

"We'll get her back," he promised.

"That a guess?" she whispered.

"Yes," he admitted, his expression apologetic. "But that doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of people on this base who care about her very much and would do anything to help her."

Janet opened her mouth to respond, but trailed off as claxons filled the room, announcing another incoming wormhole.

"Receiving IDC. It's SG-1," Sergeant Davis announced.

"Open the Iris," Hammond ordered.

Janet immediately rushed forward as Daniel carried Calpurnia forward. Jack made a bee-line for Hammond.

"Calpurnia, can you hear me?" Janet asked, pulling out her pen-light and shining it in the girl's eyes.

Calpurnia nodded weakly, wincing as she did so.

"Yeah, looks like a concussion," Janet said, gently probing the girl's abdomen. "Does that hurt?"

"A little."

"Well, I don't think there's any internal bleeding, but I'd like to get some scans just to be safe. It won't be that different from the tests I gave you when--"

"They have her!" Jack shouted, slamming his fist into the wall.

Janet looked up at the shout, wincing as his fist connected with the wall.

"Colonel, restrain yourself!" Hammond ordered sharply.

"You have got to give me--"

"Give you who?" Hammond demanded. "Do you have any idea how few men I have to spare right now? Have you not been looking around these past few days? We have over twenty-five members of various teams not fit for active duty, Colonel."

"So give me the rest!" Jack shouted. "This is Carter we're talking about here! They are going to make her a host!"

"My office, Colonel!" Hammond ordered, pointing. "Doctor, are the girl's injuries severe enough to prevent her from being debriefed?"

"Sir," Jack began.

"My office now, Colonel!" he ordered sharply.

Jack glared at him for a moment before stalking off.

"Doctor?" Hammond prompted.

"I'd like to get those scans run first. She took a pretty heavy blow to the head. I want to rule out the possibility of hematoma."

"Fair enough." He nodded. "Teal'c, once she's been cleared by Doctor Frasier, I'd like you to debrief her."

Teal'c nodded acceptance of the order.

"The rest of you, dismissed. Get some rest if you can."

"Sir--" Daniel and Jonas started together.

He held up his hand to forestall them. "I know, gentlemen. Believe me, I do. Dismissed." Sighing deeply, he turned and walked to his office.

"General," Jack began the minute he entered.

"I know, Jack," Hammond sighed, closing the door and dropping into his seat. "I care about her, too." Closing his eyes, he added, "I know this is hard on you, but right now, we have a very serious deficit in our number of operational teams. There is no way the president would authorize--"

"Then we go without authorization. Wouldn't be the first time," he pointed out.

"Jack."

"Damn it, George, this is Carter!" he snapped. "She's invaluable to my team and to this entire program! Without her, there wouldn't be a Stargate program! The least we can do is use the damned thing to save her!"

Hammond shook his head. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to me having to say this, Jack, but I think we both know that you are letting your emotions get the better of you. Now as long as the emotions in question didn't cloud your ability to perform your job, I've been perfectly willing to pretend they don't exist. Please don't make me have to change that policy."

Jack's jaw dropped. "This is not about--"

"How many nights have you spent in her room in the past week?" Hammond interrupted quietly.

"Oh, so now you're accusing me of sleeping with her? You think I'd do anything to endanger her position here?" Jack demanded.

"I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm telling you that if you can find a reasonable way to recover the Major, I will do everything in my power to make it happen."

Jack exhaled deeply, nodding. "Thank you, sir."

"Maybe we can recruit a few Jaffa from the Alpha site." He sighed again as one more painful fact made its way into his awareness. "And someone is going to have to tell Jacob."

"I'll do it, sir. I was her CO."

"You still are, Jack."

"I'm not sleeping with her, George."

"I know." He nodded faintly. "You care about her too much."

Jack closed his eyes and nodded, biting back tears. How insane was that? Loving a woman too much to sleep with her. Only in the military...

"Go to the infirmary," Hammond directed. "Get a valium."

"Yes, sir. If I could just have a roster of all available personnel--"

"You need to have a clear head for this, Jack. Take some time to compose yourself first."

"I can't!" he snapped. "The longer I sit on my ass doing nothing the more worked up I am going to get and you know it, George! The same would be true if any member of my team were in this situation and you know that, too!"

Hammond regarded him thoughtfully for a long moment before reaching into a desk drawer and producing a folder. "Remember to get that valium," he told Jack as he handed it over.

"Thank you, sir."

***

Hammond did not comment on the damp spots on the pages as Jack handed them back, though he did wonder whether they were tears of desperation or if Jack was already in mourning.


"We can make this happen," Jack told him. "A small team, special ops trained. We have enough former black-ops people to do it." He handed him a sheet of paper.

"Daniel and Jonas are not going to be happy about being excluded," Hammond pointed out, handing the sheet back to him.

"Does that mean I have a go?"

"I believe it does. We'll have the briefing as soon as you get back from the Alpha site."

"Jacob," Jack whispered. In struggling to come up with a viable plan on short notice, he had forgotten.

"He's been my friend for a lot of years. I can be the one to tell him if you want."

Jack shook his head. "I'm her CO. It should come out of my mouth."

Hammond nodded and watched Jack turn to go, sighing and shaking his head.

He was not surprised when, even before the briefing, Daniel and Jonas were in his office complaining about their exclusion, sometimes speaking over each other, sometimes combining their voices. I've been a member of this team for six years. My visions can be invaluable on something like this. After all, Sam is our friend, too, damn it.

Hammond sighed, wondering which was worse: Jack with his ranting, Daniel with his logical points, or Jonas with his hurt puppy-dog expression. Or maybe it was how hard it was to keep a secret at the SGC. No, he decided finally, the worst part was Samantha Carter's absence.

"Take a look at this roster, gentlemen," he advised, sliding it across the desk. "Then tell me what the men on it all have in common."

"None of them are like brothers to Sam?" Daniel challenged. "None of them have been to Delphi before?"

"And none of them can see the future," Jonas added mildly. "Sir..."

"No." Hammond shook his head. "The matter is closed. You are not returning to Delphi. Now, you may attend the pre-mission briefing, but only if you promise to behave yourselves. Dismissed."

Jonas cursed, ignoring the shocked expressions the others gave him, and stalked out of the office, muttering to himself and searching for Janet. He did not have to search much farther than the infirmary, of course.

"How are you holding up?" Janet asked gently.

"I'll be better once we have Sam back in one piece." He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "I hate them, Janet."

"We all do, Jonas. Especially right now. Look at everything they've done to us in the past few weeks."

"Makes it that much more frustrating that I can't go," Jonas grumbled, shaking his head in disgust. "I can see the future! How can the General not think I could be an asset?"

"The General has his reasons."

"Don't you give me that, too." He shook his head. "Did Teal'c get anything out of Calpurnia?"

"Yes, but you aren't going to like it. Artemis' current host is infertile, Jonas. Apollo wants to change that."

"My God," Jonas whispered, aghast. So Apollo had started to get the same ideas as Apophis about creating a Harsesis child…

"I know." Janet nodded.

He sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping. "Why didn't I see this coming?"


"You can't see everything, Jonas. You know that. There are so many possibilities and not even you can be sure of them all." She shook her head, squeezing his shoulder. "Maybe you should get some rest?"

"People keep telling me that lately," he answered, shaking his head. "I fell asleep last night and look what happened."

"So you're never going to sleep again?"

"Sounds like a plan," came the whispered response.

"Don't do this to yourself, Jonas, please. This isn't your fault. It's the fault of a Gua'old you've never even encountered before. Place blame where it's due."

Jonas nodded weakly. "Thank you, Janet. You always were better than half the shrinks on this base."

***

Sam awoke on a hard, flat surface. That alone was not unusual given the number of times she slept on the ground in a given month, but this surface was cold metal. She opened her eyes reluctantly, half-expecting and half-praying to see herself in the infirmary. Her prayer was not answered, making her wonder as she looked around the fabric-draped room whether there was a single god out there who was not simply some alien imposter. She tried to sit up, only to find herself restrained. Shaking her head, she started to struggle.

"Hold her head still," Cybil ordered, gesturing absently to two temple maidens as she placed the Gua'old on Sam's chest.

"She's fighting it," one of the maidens said, startled.

"Let her," the other answered. "It won't help."

"Why do you fight this honor?" the first asked in obvious confusion.

"No!" Sam whispered in frantic protest as the parasite made its way quickly from her chest to her throat, then slid behind it. "No!" she screamed as the searing pain of its attempt to burrow into the back of her neck made itself felt. "No, no, no!" she protested, bucking against her restraints. "Get out! Get out!" she screamed, only this time the words refused to come and she was reduced to screaming them in her head.

From the back of her mind, she watched Cybil release the restraints and help her to her feet, then kneel. "My Lady. Your Lord awaits."

"This body pleases us, Cybil," Artemis informed her. "Calpurnia must be well-rewarded for her service in bringing it to us."

Sam felt her heart sink at those words and, had it been possible, she knew she would have been weeping.

"Of course, my Lady."

Get out of my head, you damned parasite!  she ordered mentally. The mental order was followed by the most extreme pain Sam had felt in her entire life, worse than she would have imagined possible. And it did not last for a moment or two, either. It endured long after Artemis followed Cybil from the temple to the palace and sat down to join her brother for an early supper.

It was clear to Sam that, for his part, Apollo was well-pleased with his Queen's new body. The looks he kept giving her would have made her shiver if that response had been in her hands.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a God's favors? Artemis inquired lightly.

Bitch! Get out of my head! Sam snapped back, only to find herself once more in excruciating pain.

You will find the experience... moving. I've always enjoyed it, and I know Cybil did as well.


Sam was startled by that revelation.

Artemis was amused and Sam could tell. A high priestess must serve her lord and master in many capacities. How did you think her hair ended up white? She resisted at first and so had to be punished, but she came to savor the experience as much as I always do. Our royal brother has had thousands of years to refine his technique, Artemis assured her.

Sam could not fight her fear or revulsion any longer. This time her mental screams had nothing to do with pain or protest. Artemis laughed silently at her until Cybil entered the dinging hall.

"My Lady's injection."

"Injection?" Apollo asked.

"The Tau'ri took steps to undo our previous work on the host. She can no longer see the future."

Apollo scowled and made a preemptory gesture to Cybil, who pulled the injector from her robes and emptied its contents into Sam's carotid artery. His expression faintly disgusted, he rose.

"Come to me when this flaw has corrected itself," he ordered Artemis.

"As my Lord wishes," Artemis answered, bowing her head as he swept from the room.

Mentally, Sam heaved a sigh of relief. She had been spared what had to be the most unwanted attentions she could even imagine being on the receiving end of. For now, at least.

You can not begin to imagine the true definition of the words 'unwanted attentions, Artemis taunted her. The sarcophagus heals many injuries. I may have to relinquish control of this body long enough for my Lord to show you.