DARK EMBRACE CHAPTER SIX
SG-3 took point: the Marines were good at that and while O'Neill usually wanted them watching their "Six" Major Samantha Carter appreciated them storming the beach as it were for her. It was morning on P3x-666 and the villagers were moving about conducting their lives as if nothing had transpired. There was a notable difference; a good chunk of the horror movie castle seemed to be missing.
Ivanyn greeting them anxious to hear about the silver haired warrior. Had he survived? Had he succumbed to the madness as the few survivors they had known had? And why had part of the Castle ascended into the sky just as the sun had set the very day O'Neill had escaped?
No one from the Village had thought to investigate for they believed it to be instant death, if they were lucky, to go anywhere near the castle.
"Sam, I'm going to hang back here and find out as much as I can about the Wampyr." Daniel stumbled over the word using the natives' pronunciation. The concept of a vampire, vampires, had caused dark recessed near primitive fears to run screaming for help to the modern scientific mind which was helpless to calm the anxiety, Confused and unwillingly just as frightened.
Major Lawrence already had his men set out in two squad formations, Teal'c taking the scout position in the lead group, Captain Scarpetti taking the same position with SG-5.
They were able to approach the fortification without resistance.
Teal'c stepped through the hole that O'Neill had blown in the side of the wall. It was obviously Goa'uld in construction, the only lighting barely enough to allow navigation through the corridors.
As Goa'uld structures went it was modest only taking up an acre of land, the concentric corridors leading to the central chamber or throne room of the false god. There was a prevailing stench of decay which was near gagging as they got closer and closer to the central core. A line of Jaffa bodies from O'Neill's escape left an easily followed trail of carnage. The Jaffa had a mark never seen before, it appeared to be in the shape of a bat in each forehead. Each Jaffa showed scars on their throats, puncture wounds, beside the recent fatal staff blasts.
Once in the central hall the horrific scene that greeted them even gave the Marines pause. Along the wall were bodies chained and in various states of decay. All had died as the result of puncture wounds to the neck. They had been bled to death, or rather had been fed on till they died because there was not enough blood left to sustain their lives. The bodies showed other signs of torture, repeated beating, broken and shattered limbs, and long jagged rent flesh. The same fate had been in store for the Colonel.
The massive throne centrally raised seemed to be carved from a black stone that absorbed the light. It showed the sign of a staff blast and a few feet in front of it lay the body of two Jaffa and two small children. The children had nearly been cut in two by a staff blast.
"Well this is where he shot it out." Lawrence announced running the light over the floor. The imprint of a combat boots tread in what first seemed to dried mud but Sam realized was blood.
The scene played out in Teal'c mind. The Goa'uld before the throne or in front of O'Neill the two Jaffa holding him down, the imprint of his knees in the blood covered floor. O'Neill would have overpowered one of the Jaffa, taken the staff weapon shot the other then the first and turned it on the Goa'uld. He swung his head in the direction; the small children were in the direct path.
Sam leaned against him, a hand to her mouth suppressing the need to vomit.
"Major Carter I recommend we search for any Goa'uld technology and then
destroy this place. The Goa'uld has left."
"But why Teal'c? I mean the villagers have never been a threat before and the Colonel..." Sam grimaced trying not to focus on the bodies.
"Because of O'Neill, this Goa'uld knows him for what he represents, and that is a threat to it beyond that of the denizens of this planet."
"The Colonel wasn't cattle to be fed off of." Major Lawrence commented. "We're doing a full search of what is left of this place and then we're planting enough C-4 to leave it a memory."
And so they did, SG-5 found several more chambers with rotting, decayed, or skeletal remains. It appeared their vampire Goa'uld went through one villager a month and when none were found or the supply short a Jaffa was substituted.
The side of the mountain blew out like an eruption. There would be no memory of the Goa'uld who had come to this planet. Daniels investigation had turned up more information on the mythology of the people of P3X-666.
Back at the SGC Daniel groped for the words. His best friend and the closest thing he had to a brother/father still lay slipping in and out of consciousness in the infirmary. It was easy to understand Jack being wounded from, weapons fire; injuries sustained in battle even the occasional aliens "poking him full of holes." However, to now have a picture of what had been done to him by a vampire Goa'uld was devastating. It was only heightened by his acquaintance with the myths of Romania/Transylvania and other cultures who believed in demons that drank blood. Jack had endured tortures before but to be drained of your life by the sucking of ones blood, dying incrementally seemed even more than one of Jack's resolve could endure.
Major Lawrence had already detailed how there was no sign of the Goa'uld which substantiated the story told by the villagers that a portion of the castle flew off into the sky. Also, he detailed the body count including the two small children.
Teal'c, kept his suspicions to himself, yet his heart was suffering from a misery more acute than any physical pain. If his assumptions were correct, it had been O'Neill who had killed the two children. Causing the deaths of innocents was an act that any warrior of honor would bear with shame and one such as O'Neill would never forgive himself for.
"Sir, from what Teal'c has told me, and from what I can piece together from the people, this Goa'uld is a Vampire or at least vampirish. It needs, well actually, she needs blood to sustain her, nourishment, and it might also be the way that Camazotz controls and enslaves. Ivanyn told me that within several hundred miles of the castle that people would go missing, at least one a month. Usually it was the strongest or anyone thought to be a threat. There were also children who went missing."
"This is the way of many Goa'uld. They would destroy those who are a potential threat and demoralize the others into subservience." Teal'c announced with his usual stentorian emphasis.
"Yes, and if you are submissive then the losses will be contained to what this Goa'uld would need to survive." Sam interjected.
"Camazotz was the bat god but was initially thought of as a helper to mankind." Daniel injected.
"Yes, but Dr. Jackson, other of the Goa'uld have taken on the persona of gods and were thought to be benevolent, such as Hathor, we learned differently." Hammond tried not showing his revulsion at that memory but failed miserably. Hathor had appeared on the doorstep of the SGC, having homed in on the Stargate, and seduced with her beauty and pheromones that she emitted, ever man on the base. It has been only the resourcefulness of a handful of women, lead by then Captain Carter and Dr. Janet Fraiser that had prevented their enslavement.
Daniel's head shot up from his notes, those were memories he didn't want to recall either. It was now that he had to drop his bomb. "Ivanyn told me that the demon was female and described as possessing a beauty that was hypnotic and could control any lover." This was similar to what Hathor was capable of and what she had nearly accomplished. He had almost been the father of a new generation of Goa'uld and Jack Hathor's first new Jaffa. Daniel felt his chest tighten at the prospect remembering how Hathor had seduced him, assaulted him for his DNA. He had been violated while chemically controlled and unable to resist her. It had taken him weeks of counseling to come to grips with his "rape." What had Jack been through? Was it Hathor all over again?
"Daniel with what you have ascertained about this creature, it would seem that her plan for the Colonel was something other than using him to feed from. He was her captive for, what, less then twelve hours; to have drained that much blood from him . . . if she wasn't trying to kill him, what was she planning?" Janet questioned.
"Kill him or bring him to a state close to death when he was too weak to resist?" Hammond suggested.
"Well, that may be true but Camazotz didn't count on running into someone like Jack." Daniel remarked which brought knowing smiles from the assembled.
"Doctor, other than his obvious injuries, is there any other underlying medical condition, infections, any type of alien viruses?" Hammond asked his voice clouded with concern.
"Thankfully no, sir, the Colonel is just exceptionally weak. He's stable. He's not going to be able to do any talking for awhile because of the facial injuries. He needs his rest and solitude. I am moving him to one of the isolation rooms and limiting his visitors." Janet closed her file after flipping through it one more time.
"Janet?" Sam protested.
"This time, Sam..." Janet paused exchanging a nearly imperceptible conspiratorial look with Hammond. "I want him quiet. The facial injuries are serious and though nothing has shown yet on the scans, we always have to worry about trauma to the brain. Also, the severe blood loss has him very weak and susceptible to respiratory complications. Remember the Colonel was as close to being bled dry as a human can be without complete systems failure."
"Dismissed." Hammond knew when enough was enough. Janet stayed behind.
"Other than he can't talk very well, he isn't talking sir." She answered her commanding officer's unspoken question. "I have CJ watching him like a hawk. You might want to put an S.F. in the general vicinity." She clutched her file to her chest, sighed, and smiled weakly as she left.
Looking out the observation window to the silent gate, Hammond muttered an expletive under his breath coupled with a prayer.