Author: Jackie W.
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PART 3 – No Matter How Hopeless…. No Matter How Far
SG3 departed for home with the promise to pass along this new info to Daniel. Meanwhile, Sam and Harry spent two more days tracking Aris Boch's movement on Margile. What they found stunned Sam. Boch had arrived two days before General O'Neill and as far as they could tell it was a routine planned stop to pick up supplies. The truly amazing thing was that his ship had remained on Margile for another two weeks.
Two weeks during which time the planet had been crawling with SGC personnel.
"That's probably why he stayed. If he'd left during that time-frame his ship would have come under suspicion," Harry pointed out. "Besides, he conducted some other business while he was here. It would have thrown anyone looking into his activities off the track."
"What other business," Sam asked hopefully.
Harry smiled. "I have a list."
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The initial excitement of finally having a solid lead had worn off a week later. Tracking Aris Boch was like trying to follow a gust of wind. It was made even more difficult by the fact that since he was traveling by ship he could stop at planets without Stargates. Maybourne, to his credit, had been a tremendous help. Having been out trading himself for several years he was able to provide lists of planets that Boch might have gone to after leaving Margile based on the business he had conducted there.
They theorized that he would be heading in the general direction of Ba'al's territory to try to get payment for O'Neill, but Mayboune was betting that he would stop along the way to do further business. There were three planets on the list that SGC teams had been to previously and Sam took these to investigate. Teal'c was trying to get word to any rebel Jaffa in Ba'al's ranks to find out if Boch had contacted him yet.
Their only fear was that Boch would make a deal with another Goa'uld, which would make tracking the General almost impossible. Harry questioned Sam once on how long she would keep searching. Her answer had just confirmed what he'd always suspected.
"I'll never stop looking, Harry," she told him firmly.
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After two weeks of trying to pick up the trail, Sam for the first time was beginning to wonder if she would indeed be looking for Jack O'Neill for the rest of her life. Teal'c had reported in the day before with no real news and she hadn't seen Harry Maybourne for four days. She worried a bit about that. The man knew her base's location and she wondered if he might not trade that information if push came to shove.
For now all she could do was pour over the new intel Daniel had sent on Ba'al. She was dismayed to see how much power he had gained even in the month she'd been gone. He quickly had become almost as powerful as Anubus had been before him.
The next day the gate activated and Sam took up her defensive position in a grove of trees off to the right of the gate. A moment after the event horizon formed a lone figure stepped out and paused, hands held out to show he wasn't pointing a weapon at her.
"Nice of you to finally drop by Harry," she greeted him as she stepped out once the wormhole had shut down behind him.
"Now is that anyway to greet the bearer of good news?" Harry quipped.
"I could use some about now," she acknowledged.
"I know where Aris Boch is," Harry grinned. "And he's not going anywhere anytime soon."
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The bounty hunter had finally gotten on the wrong side of the wrong people. He'd been tossed in jail after being caught out in shady trade deal. Within hours, the two were standing before several councilmen on Sryees asking permission to question the prisoner. Maybourne had paved the way by bringing several items that were in short supply on the planet, and when the council seemed reluctant, Sam offered to go in alone and let Harry stay with them as a show of good faith that they were not there to assist in an escape.
Before she was taken to see the prisoner she turned with one last request.
"I promise not to kill the scoundrel, but if I injure him during questioning I hope I have your forgiveness," she entreated solemnly.
Several of the council chuckled. They couldn't see much danger of that happening, especially since the woman would not be allowed inside the cell.
"Do what you must," they agreed.
During the walk down to the prison cells Sam prepared herself for meeting Aris Boch. When the man saw her outside the bars of the cell he actually smiled.
"Well, well, if it isn't the feisty little Major," he began, only to find himself blasted back against the stone wall of the cell with the air knocked out of him.
As his vision cleared he looked up to see Sam Carter with her right arm raised ready to give him a second blast from the ribbon device attached to her.
"Hey, what was that for?" he protested.
"Wrong answer," she responded hitting him harder this time and knocking him out.
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Sam sat patiently outside of the cell waiting for Aris Boch to regain consciousness. One of the men that had escorted her down originally had scurried off, she assumed to report to the council. When one of the members approached her with several armed guards and Harry in tow she stood and activated the personal shield.
"I'm not a Goa'uld," she assured councilman Jarif.
"And yet you possess their power," he pointed out.
"I was once blended with a Tok'ra symbiote," she explained.
Jarif studied her for a moment. "Do you plan on torturing this man?"
"I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. All I need is an answer to one question," she told him.
"And what would that be Samantha Carter?" Jarif asked.
"She wants to know where I took her boyfriend, General Jack O'Neill," Aris Boch answered from his position in the corner of the cell, earning him a glare from Sam.
"We know you took him to Ba'al," Sam said. "I just need to know the planet you dropped him off on," Sam told the man.
"And then you will leave us alone?" Jarif asked
"I have no intention of hurting anyone other than this sorry excuse for a living sentient being," Sam assured him.
"This General, he is important to you?" Jarif asked curiously.
"He's important to a lot of people. Including the Asgard, the rebel Jaffa and the Tok'ra," Sam declared. "This scumbag abducted him from trade negotiations on Margile because the Goa'uld have a huge price on the General's head."
"Then you shall get your information," Jarif conceded. Turning to the guards he ordered, "Allow her to do whatever it takes to get this man to talk."
For the first time sinceSam Carter had walked up to his cell Aris Boch felt afraid.
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An hour later, armed with the planet designation and quite a bit of intel on the layout, Sam and Harry left Sryees. Sam had thanked them for their cooperation and promised them that if she found the General she would recommend to him that he send a team to their planet for trade negotiations. There had been a piece of good news once she'd gotten Aris Boch to talk. He had left Jack on one of Ba'al's outposts only eight days ago, and Ba'al had not been there at the time, nor had he been expected immediately. The System Lord had left instructions for O'Neill to be put to work in the mines until he arrived. With any luck, they would get to him before Ba'al actually got his hands on him.
Of course Murphy's Law ensured that it would not be that easy.
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TBC