Disclaimers, etc. in Chapter 1

Chapter 7

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While he tried to regain his power of speech, Jack stared at the sniper who had delivered the verbal blow. The sneer adorning the sniper's face fell as Jack looked at him threateningly, willing him to say something that would give him an excuse to lash out physically.

Daniel looked helplessly at Jack and Teal'c, his mouth opening and closing automatically while he searched for something to say. It was Jack who finally broke the silence.

"Are there others on this planet?" he asked, his tone holding no trace of emotion. Daniel marveled at Jack's self-control, aware that he himself wanted to punch something, or someone, at that moment and conscious that Jack must feel worse.

"What do you mean?" asked the sneering sniper, as Jack now referred to him in his mind.

"The way you talked earlier, it sounded like you two are not the only people who live on this planet. Where are the others?"

"They are around," replied the sniper cryptically.

"Well, I wanna talk to 'em," said Jack.

"Why?"

"Because I talk to the organ grinder, not the monkeys." The two snipers shared looks of confusion and Jack sighed before explaining, "I'm figuring you two are not the main men of this planet, so I want to talk to whatever man, or woman," he added, thinking about how Carter would kick his butt for automatically assuming a man would be in command, "is in charge. Take us to them."

The snipers traded looks again, but the movement of Jack's hands to his P-90 was enough to make them nod in agreement. They led the way to the forest, but walked around its perimeter, rather than through the trees. About halfway along the edge, they diverted to another track and then pointed to a cave.

"We must go down there."

"Your people live underground?" queried Daniel. The snipers both nodded and Jack roughly pushed the older one to get him walking again. Teal'c walked between the two snipers, while Jack and Daniel brought up the rear. Both guns belonging to the snipers had been confiscated by Jack and he was currently carrying one while Teal'c had the other.

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"You really don't have some kind of cure, something to reverse the effects of the poison?" asked Jack almost pleadingly. They were underground, talking to the planet inhabitants. The snipers had led them directly to their leader and explained the situation. The younger one had said he believed that they would not have stolen the treasure and that he regretted shooting Carter. As a result, they had been received well and allowed to keep their weapons on condition that they returned the guns they had taken from the snipers.

"I am sorry, but we do not," said Gus, the leader. "The poison was developed many years ago, before any of us were born. It has been passed down through the generations."

"And there was never any mention of something to counter-act it?" pressed Daniel. "Nothing in your historical records."

"No," replied Gus, but there was something in his eyes that made Daniel think he was lying.

Changing the topic slightly, Daniel asked, "Why was it originally developed? Why coat bullets in poison? Bullets are meant to kill people quickly, why go for a slow death instead?"

"You would not understand."

"Try us," said Jack, more gently than Daniel would have expected from looking at his morose expression.

Gus looked around at his compatriots, who formed some sort of High Council, searching for permission to tell the story. Although no agreement was forthcoming, there were no objections raised either, so he decided to proceed.

"Our history books tell us that, many years ago, we were invaded by aliens who claimed they were servants of Gods. They took some of our people and implanted something, some kind of creature into them. The creature took over the minds of our people, turning them against us, making them kill those who did not obey the commands of the Gods." Gus stopped and looked around, anticipating disbelief from the travelers. However, he was met with understanding looks. "You do not seem surprised."

"These… creatures, did they look like snakes?" asked Jack, receiving a nod in reply. "Yeah, we're familiar with them. You know that the people they serve are false Gods, right?"

"Our ancestors determined that, yes, but the enemy were powerful. They had found our treasure and they wanted it. Some of our people tried to fight, to shoot them, but we found that we could not easily kill them as they were covered in too much armor. Our scientists used our treasure, three special materials, to develop the poison, though they were unaware of what it could do, how powerful it would become. When they realized its capabilities, they developed the method of coating the bullets in poison. With the poison, we do not need to the bullets to enter the body, a graze is enough. The poison is able to take control of the enemy's mind. Many of the enemy left, with only a small army remaining to mine our treasure and act as guards. They were shot with the poison bullets and their worst fears came true, or so they thought. A different type of poison was developed for the last few enemy, so that our ancestors could convince them to leave our planet alone, that we would always win. They have never returned and we think that their own historical records show we should not be visited."

"Don't count on it," said Jack quietly, "they'll be back eventually."

"You can exert mind control over a Gou'ald?" inquired Daniel in awe. "But, that's impossible without removing the symbiote, it will always fight off an attack."

"You mean the snake? The poison takes complete control, even of the snake."

"Wow," said Daniel. "You know, we could really use that stuff."

"I know, Daniel," said Jack gruffly, "but that's not the priority right now." Gus's story was amazing, but Carter was still on Jack's mind and, although he knew he shouldn't put her first, he was determined to help her before concentrating on the anti-Gou'ald benefits of the new information. "When your scientists developed the poison, or poisons, since you now say there are two, are you sure they didn't develop anything to counter-act it? They must have tested it on themselves first, or on someone at least. They must have had a way to reverse the process."

"There is nothing," said Gus, but his gaze faltered and Jack took a menacing step towards him. "There is something," he eventually relented. "It has never been tested though, at least not in my lifetime."

"What is it?"

"There are notes, from our ancestors. There is a formula, but we do not know how to decipher it."

"It's different from the formula for the poison?"

"We do not have a formula for that," said Gus, prompting confused stares from SG1. "The method of producing it has been passed down through the generations through practice. Many of us have been shown how to make it and we pass that knowledge on to our children."

"Can we see the formula?" asked Jack as politely as he could manage.

With a tap of his cane, Gus silently directed one of his compatriots to retrieve the necessary document. "I cannot let you remove the paper from here, it is of great historical importance."

"That's okay, Danny here will copy it down," said Jack, glancing in Daniel's direction.

"In case we don't understand the formula either, could we have a sample of the poison?" requested Daniel. "Our scientists may be able to use it to develop a cure. We only have a trace amount at the moment, taken from our friend's blood."

"I can allow that, though I do not think it will do you much good."

"Could we also have some samples of your treasures?" asked Daniel, knowing he was pushing his luck.

"That I cannot allow," stated Gus firmly. "We do not allow anyone to take our treasures."

"We only need small amounts. If they are used in the poison, they are probably crucial in a cure. Please." Daniel's tone implored Gus to listen and agree to his request and he was greatly relieved when Gus slowly nodded.

"I will allow very small samples, I will make arrangements. If you ever return, you will not be given more and we will use all measures to ensure this," he warned. "As you know, we use the poison bullets to inflict maximum damage and a slow death on our enemy."

"Yeah, we know," muttered Jack.

"We'll also need the names of the treasures, whatever you call them individually," said Daniel. "That may help us figure out the formula." The document containing the formula had been passed to him and he was hurriedly scribbling down a copy, his mind trying to process it as he wrote. He didn't understand anything there, but hoped that the SGC scientists would. Numbers were present in the formula, which he assumed referred to amounts of the components, but there were also letters and that was what worried him; would the scientists be able to translate what the letters were meant to represent?

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Jack was pacing. He had been pacing for four hours, four long hours, since he had returned from the planet armed with the formula and chemical names for the samples they were carrying. Everything had immediately been passed to the scientists and SG1 had reluctantly left them to their work, with the assurance that they would be informed as soon as they made any headway.

"The problem is," said Daniel, watching Jack pace, "there's no way of testing the anti-venom. We can't infect anyone else with the poison, so Sam is going to be the literal guinea pig."

"I already said –"

"Jack," interrupted Daniel, "you know the General can't let you be infected and then test the anti-venom on you. What if it doesn't work? He would lose two officers instead of one."

"If it doesn't work, he's going to lose me anyway," mumbled Jack. "How sure are you that the formula was for a cure?" he asked more loudly.

"The wording before the formula seemed to indicate it was for that," said Daniel.

"So why have the inhabitants of the planet never tested it for themselves?"

"I don't know, Jack," he sighed. "They seemed to be very set in tradition though, only doing things that have been physically taught to them. The history books are only there to look at, not to learn from."

"But it's crazy. At one point, they actually admitted that some of their own people were hurt in a training accident a few years ago. Why not try out the formula then to try to cure them?" Jack remembered the pained look on Gus's face when he had made the admission, just before SG1 left the underground caverns. They had pressed him for an answer, but he had said nothing other than that they always let their people die with dignity.

"They seem to prefer to kill their people quickly if they've been hurt. We may not agree with their methods, Jack, but it's the way they do things, it's the way they've been taught."

"I know, Daniel, it's just that I have this feeling that they haven't told us something."

"What do we have to lose, Jack? If Sam doesn't get the anti-venom, she's going to die. If she gets it and it's not what we think it is, how much worse can it get?"

"With what we've seen over the years, you really shouldn't say something like that," muttered Jack.

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"How confident are you that this will work, Doctor?" asked Hammond as he, Jack, Teal'c and Daniel sat in the Briefing Room with Janet Fraiser.

"The scientists seem pretty certain that they've interpreted the formula correctly, and the samples do appear to be what we found in the poison, the unknown chemicals," she replied. "I can't give you any guarantees, Sir."

"I know. SG1, Jacob has agreed that, since he can't be here, we should take any decisions with regard to his daughter, so I want your opinions on this; should we proceed?"

Teal'c and Daniel remained silent, both looking at Jack. "We discussed this earlier, Sir," said Jack, "and we think it's what Carter would want. She'd want to fight this. I just wish we could ask for her agreement."

"We all do, Colonel, but her state of mind is such that she would never grant agreement, she thinks we are all working against her." Jack closed his eyes and nodded, letting out a deep breath. "Doctor Fraiser, please proceed. Give Major Carter the anti-venom that the scientists have produced. We will watch from the Observation Room."

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General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c gathered in front of the Observation Room window, watching the action taking place in the room below. Major Carter was strapped to a hospital gurney, her eyes wide with fright as Janet tried to talk to her soothingly, telling her they were just going to run some more tests. Her condition had worsened substantially and she was convinced that a duplicate Colonel O'Neill was exercising some sort of mind control over everyone. She was completely unaware that almost the opposite was happening.

The needle containing the anti-venom was inserted into Sam's arm, at the point where the bullet initially grazed her, so that it would enter the bloodstream in exactly the same place. Janet had no idea how long it would take for any reaction to become apparent, but she figured it might take as long as it had for the original unconsciousness to kick in. However, she was totally unprepared for what actually happened.

"Get a crash cart," she yelled. "Start CPR!"

The faces in the Observation Room paled and Jack placed his palms against the window, trying to send all his strength to the woman lying below. Daniel rested a hand on Jack's shoulder and General Hammond copied his actions on the other side. They both heard Jack's silent plea. "Dammit, Carter, fight this."

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TBC...

A/N: For those of you who commented that you didn't think the last chapter would end as it did, I know exactly where you are coming from – it certainly wasn't the ending I planned, but the angst just flowed out of me (hmm, is that something I should be proud of?) I did, however, plan this ending like this. ;-)

I am totally astounded by the amount of reviews I have received for this, and I'm also totally delighted. Keep 'em coming. :-)