Jack was officially having the worst day.
Moby Vosk had taken off, probably to torment Daniel some more. Or maybe to shoot Carter again, Jack couldn't tell. The entire cadre of Jaffa surrounding him and Teal'c were clearly riding the ragged edge of hysteria and if there was one thing worse than having Jaffa point weapons at him, it was freaked out Jaffa pointing weapons at him.
Jack was sure he was going to fart and they would blast him by accident.
"Sure you guys don't have Scrabble or something?" He said, more out of needling reflex than anything else.
No one replied.
"I'm just asking." he breathed, rolling his eyes.
Fraser found the cell where Oric claimed Dr. Jackson was being held. Two guards stood in front, so the information seemed to be good.
Fraser waited.
Oric surveyed the empty slave pen with satisfaction. The Tauri female must not have been badly hurt after all. Truly, SG-1 was a formidable team. He keyed the ship's all-levels frequency.
"The slaves are escaping. Jaffa to the holding pens! Kree!"
"Yes!" Jack crowed.
None of the staff wielding Jaffa moved.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding"
Daniel was becoming inured to the frequent crackling of zat bolts against the force field. He'd even managed to stop blinking when they impacted in front of his face. His captor was playing with him, he knew, so he was back to staying as neutral as possible.
This didn't go over well after a while, which was exactly what Daniel had hoped.
The huge jailer lumbered forward.
"Enough playing with toys, little man." He put a hand on the electronics panel to the right of the cell. Daniel felt his energy coil.
One shot, just one shot. C'mon.
The shimmering, humming wall around Daniel's cell blinked out of existence just as the green eyes looked up at a sudden announcement about escaping slaves.
Daniel took the opportunity to rush him. Throwing all his weight forward, shoulder out and head down, Daniel impacted the Great White Jaffa just under his floating rib, aiming to take out the solar plexus.
It was a beautiful tackle. Jack would have been proud. There was one problem. None of that heft was fat. Daniel crashed into a wall of muscle shoulder-first and bounced. He landed on his ass, his shoulder sore and wrenched.
Vosk staggered backwards a few steps, crashing into a wall. He looked at Daniel for a moment, and then laughed heartily, great guffaws erupting from his belly and rolling through his throat. After a moment he looked down and his laughter dwindled until it was just that creepy slow smile. He watched Daniel shake his head briskly and look up, eyes wide behind his glass lenses.
"That was well done, little Tauri." Vosk boomed. Terrifyingly, Daniel realized it was actually a sincere compliment. He put one giant hand down and grasped the front of Daniel's shirt. He lifted the shaken man with no apparent effort. "Back in your cage now. I have work to do."
Daniel registered air under his feet and then he was flying backwards, slamming into the wall. His head impacted with the metal of the ship and pain crackled through him like lightning. He had been flung with enough force to knock the rest of his wind out of his lungs and he was close to concussion land, consciousness fading. Worse, through the haze of pain, he realized that Vosk had actually pulled his throw.
Vosk restarted the force field. He paused as though he would deliver one more stinging, smug comment, then just smiled again and walked out of the room.
"Watch him." Daniel heard his own personal Satan making sure the reeling doctor would still be around to torture when he was finished disemboweling someone.
Anyone, from the sound of his voice.
Daniel choked, sucking in air, and tried desperately to stay awake. He was beginning to feel like a chew-toy. He mentally promised any passing deity that might happen to be in the general vicinity that he'd never, ever ridicule any of Jack's stupid ideas again if O'Neill would just show the fuck up with one of them. Preferably, he added, before the very large nutcase came back.
Whatever crazy scheme Jack was working on this time, Daniel was all for it.