As soon as their interrupted briefing was finished, SG1 left for the infirmary. Daniel and Jack had been the first out of the briefing room, with Carter and Teal'c not far behind.
"My god, Jack. What could have happened?" Daniel asked.
The colonel shook his head and put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "I don't know, Danny, but we'll find out. Let's go talk to Ferretti."
Carter looked at Teal'c. "Whatever happened, it was bad. I've never seen Ferretti look like that."
Teal'c nodded solemnly. "Indeed. Major Ferretti was visibly disturbed."
Sam chewed her bottom lip. "I hope Ariana's going to be okay."
"As do I, Major Carter."
They found Ferretti and Sloane leaning against the wall outside the infirmary doors with his 2IC. Both men appeared to be in shock, but SG1 knew that the doctors would not have let the men leave the infirmary if they'd needed medical attention.
"Any word yet?" Jack asked.
Ferretti shook his head. "Fraiser cleared us and then shooed us out the door. Gutierrez is okay, but they're keeping him overnight for observation. The doc's gonna be in surgery for a while..."
Sloane said, "Farrell lost a lot of blood, sir, and it took us too long to get back. They don't know if..."
"She's going to be fine!" Daniel asserted.
Everyone fell silent and after a moment Jack cleared his throat. "What happened out there, Lou?"
Ferretti swallowed before speaking. "We'd split up to do a standard recon sweep. The doc figured that the people on P4G-129 didn't use the gate; maybe didn't even know it was there. I told them to meet us back at the gate, but when they didn't show up, Sloane and I backtracked their route. We ran into a native girl called Talina who told us they'd been captured by slavers. She promised to help us find them - the slavers had been chasing her when Gutierrez and the doc got caught in the crossfire."
The major stopped, unable to go on for a moment. He sighed deeply then said, "Jack, the slavers took them to a brothel..."
Daniel jerked and Jack could see his friend's knuckles go white where they gripped his crossed arms. Sam let out a soft moan of denial. When it appeared that Ferretti was unable to continue his narrative, Captain Sloane took up the account.
"With Talina's help, the major and I managed to sneak into the building where they were being held. The lieutenant was chained to the wall in the first room we searched. Gutierrez told us that Farrell had been drugged and taken away to 'entertain a special client.' When we reached the hallway again, we heard Farrell cry out."
Sloane stopped speaking abruptly, and his listeners were shocked to see what appeared to be tears glistening in the big man's eyes.
"It was bad, sir. When we reached her, Farrell was standing over some guy - naked and covered in blood. She didn't even know who we were at first."
Ferretti's gaze hardened. "She killed the prick who was trying to rape her, Jack. The doc been drugged and stabbed, but she still managed to get him off of her and stab him with his own knife. My god! He was twice the size of Teal'c."
He rubbed his hands over his face before continuing. "I thought we were gonna lose her on the way back to the gate. I'd taken her extra med kit with us, but she kept bleeding through the dressings. So we just booked it back home as fast as we could."
"What happened to the girl?" asked Carter.
Sloane shook his head. "Talina was gone when we got back. The major had told her to wait for us, but I guess she was afraid to stick around. We didn't stop to look for her."
Jack clapped both men on the shoulder. "You two did your best. Everything will work out fine - you'll see."
Ferretti sighed. "I hope so, Jack."