Chapter III

"You know, you're not making your 'we are not the enemy' speech look very believable here!" Jack shouted through the bars that held Carter and him inside the room they had been taken to earlier. He banged a fist on the field but couldn't break through it, not that he thought that would be possible anyway. Daniel and Teal'c had been close by when they were first taken out of the pods; Jack and Sam were still clueless as to how they came to be there in the first place, to put them at ease. But the Colonel was starting to think maybe they weren't real. Since the brief talk they had had O'Neill and Carter hadn't seen them, much to their chagrin. If they were going to get answers from anyone it would be from their own team, but just then they had no contact. In fact the officials that greeted them had just about pushed Daniel and Teal'c into the corridor.

"They won't answer, Sir, they're too busy" Carter spoke up from her place sitting on a metal table at the back of the room, where she had been watching his attempts at getting attention.

"Well that's impolite" he looked back through the barrier to try and see what the men and women in protective gear were doing. "Is it just me or did they seem…happy to see us?" he checked with his 2IC.

Carter nodded an affirmative. Their reaction had her puzzled too. She walked over to where O'Neill was standing to get a better look at the people she had pegged as Scientists. "I'm starting to get the feeling they aren't keeping us in here as prisoners. Did you see how careful they were around us when they got us out of the chambers? They looked…"

O'Neill finished her thought. "Like they might catch something if they got too close?"

"Yeah, for some reason they think…I don't know…that we're infected with something?" she bounced ideas off him but carried on before he could respond. "It might explain why we were inside the chambers. We arrived on their planet and they…" she stopped, looking frustrated with herself. "Put us in there to be on the safe side? I can't even remember the last thing we did, what planet we were on! If I could then I might be able to give a reason for our predicament."

"I can't remember either" he answered, his voice quieter than earlier, he sounded disconcerted. "But if someone would answer me…" he called out again in the direction of the barrier. No one answered.

"If they put us in there" she motioned towards the pods, "until they decided we were safe then why would they let us out now only to imprison us here?" Sam questioned, but more to herself than to her CO. "Unless we're just test subjects to them…but that wouldn't explain why Daniel and Teal'c were walking around." She rubbed her hands together as she spoke, her fingertips still cold. They were both warmer than when they first emerged from their icy 'homes' but the room itself was cool so they weren't as warm as they could have been.

"Well I for one am expecting a banquet and warm and cosy rooms for the duration of our stay -- after we get out here" O'Neill spoke up again, trying to inject humour into their situation.

He received a halfhearted smile. "That would be nice" though currently unlikely. Neither of them spoke for a little while after that and when they did it was to a newcomer that looked to be inspecting them, the look of awe that they were becoming familiar with when people where in their presence was also on the face of the boy that watched them. "Look" Carter nodded in the kid's direction.

Michael's mouth was hanging open. Realising how rude he must look to them he gathered himself and stood taller, trying to look older and more authorative. The two USAF Officers merely watched him in amusement. "Now why do I get the feeling you're not supposed to be here?" Jack whispered, grinning. He crouched down to get level with the kid.

"I get a special pass," he quietly answered back. "But I'm not supposed to be in this section" he admitted, not at all reluctantly.

"Wow, you get a free pass? Then I guess that makes you pretty important" Jack responded. The boy looked like he wanted to talk, so why not find out what they wanted to know from him. He looked like the type of person that would hunt around trying to find information he wasn't supposed to have, to satisfy his curiosity. Kind of like a couple of other people he knew. "So what's your name?"

"I'm not a baby you know" Michael rolled his eyes "I know that you want to find out why you're in here…though I am kinda important" he sounded chuffed as he said that, proud of himself. He put his hand through the gap in the bars to shake Jack's hand, "my names Michael. I know who you two are, so you don't need to tell me," he added, sounding almost shy now.

The Colonel shook his hand. "So Michael what do you know about us?"

On the other side of the bars Michael sat down cross-legged, O'Neill did likewise so they were mostly at eye level with each other. "Just what I read…there are tons of books about you guys…not just SG-1 but the whole of the SGC --."

O'Neill looked behind him and he and Carter shared a worried glance. "You know about the Stargate Program?" she queried and came forward, kneeling down in front of the bars.

Michael nodded, and then seeing their unease paused. In his enthusiasm it hadn't entered his mind that they might not know what had happened to them. He looked down, fiddling with the lace on his right boot. "It's okay though…everyone knows about the SGC…about how you kept it a secret from…us…the older people at least." He faced them again and took in their confusion, knowing he should have kept his mouth shut. "The Historians can tell you more…I'm just a student."

Seeing his hesitation, Jack tried to put him at ease. "It's alright Michael. Whatever you say stays between the three of us. We won't tell anyone you spoke to us."

"What planet are we on?" Sam carried on, though the niggling feeling at the back of her mind told her that she already knew.

"Earth…" Michael began coughing, a hacking sound that made him gag. Jack moved back slightly in alarm as the boy started to double over. The Colonel shot to his feet and tried to see around the bars to catch somebody's attention but the room had emptied. "What's happening to me?" he held his breath to stop his coughing but that only worked for a few seconds. He exhaled, the breath sounded shaky. Michael stood up but dropped to his knees immediately as if he had lost his balance, his body trembled.

Jack shouted loudly but nobody came running as he had expected they would, he banged on the bars again; frustration at his own inadequacy in this situation was making his angry. He was on the wrong side of the bars. Behind him he heard Carter calling out, her tone of voice as urgent as his hand been only seconds before. "They can't hear us, or they aren't listening,"

When he turned around he saw that she wasn't even facing the bars or the Lab beyond instead she was stood, looking up at a small black glass globe, about the size of a tennis ball. A small red light blinked incessantly at the bottom. "It's a security camera. About a month ago Felger was working on something similar to this." The question that was on their minds though was, was anybody even watching the monitor that was spying on them. A muffled cry of pain tore her attention from the somewhat familiar camera, "Colonel…"

His eyes followed her as she brushed passed him and sank to her knees in front of the bars; she slipped an arm through the opening. "You'll be fine" Carter grasped Michael's hand and it seemed to give him some comfort as his pain inflicted groans stopped. One hand still gripped his stomach, which was the focus of the deep burning sensation he now felt. She turned around, a helpless look on her face.

Jack felt the same, though his feelings were tinged with anger. Where the hell were the scientists? Or the Officials they met earlier? One of their own was, quite possibly, dying and they were leaving him to his fate. "So come on, tell us about yourself" it was a rather pathetic effort at taking Michael's attention from the pain.

"I…I can't" his breathing became progressively worse until it was coming in short gasps. "My throat…hurts…feels…big."

Before they could reply, not that they could say much to help the situation, they heard a door slide open and then numerous footsteps pounding on the white floor as people ran towards them. A guard aimed a Zat at Carter, "back away!" he yelled.

She did as he ordered, albeit reluctantly, and moved back a couple of paces. This man did not look like the type of person that could remedy the situation. In fact he looked like the only person so far to be angry with them, his face was contorted with fury aimed, wholeheartedly, at them. Michael, who was lay down hunched over was quiet as two doctors lifted him, as with the others they were garbed in protective suits, gloved hands lifted the boy by his arms and legs. All they heard was agonizing whimpers until they too faded away as Michael was rushed away from them. The guard, who had been joined by two more of his peers during the commotion, looked the two SG-1 members as though they were something dirty, a blatant snub.

Jack wasn't particularly bothered if he offended this person and he didn't much care that three Zats were now aimed at him as he walked forward, reaching the bars in one quick step. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded.

"You don't have any authority here…Colonel" the use of O'Neill's rank was not meant as a sign of respect and it clearly came across the wrong way too because Jack's demeanor hardened. "You don't have clearance here" he continued, "in fact --."

"Now why don't you listen to me kid, and run along and get some adults that actually know what they're doing around here" as added insult Colonel O'Neill turned his back on the guard "I can't hear you leaving the room."

Whether it was the cocky guard that ran off or one of his quieter buddies Jack wasn't sure, nor was he particularly bothered as long as somebody came down here that could start giving him some answers. Being polite worked too, as he found out when he heard Sam question one of the remaining two guards. She didn't get a straight answer but at least it was something.

"I don't know…but he's real sick."

Well thank you for that Einstein.

Presently the footsteps of the guards were heard leaving the room. There was no way to get out of the room they were stuck in so they saw it As a waste of their valuable time watching over two people that weren't technically prisoners. When he faced the bars again he saw Carter hovering by them, trying to see around the corner to the door that had swung shut when the guards left them alone. He was sure the look of concern on her face was mirrored on his own, the kid had just keeled over; that obviously signaled something was highly wrong. "I'm sure these people know what they're doing Carter, the kid'll be fine" he assured her.

She remained mute for a few minutes and he was about to repeat his sentiment when she spoke up. "What if there is something wrong with us?"

"I doubt it. If we were we'd be in a better quarantine area than this. A kid definitely wouldn't be wandering around either."

"Michael said he wasn't supposed to be here; he sneaked in. Think about it…we are contained and nobody has gotten close enough to actually touch us. Until he came in here --."

The realisation dawned and Jack feared suddenly that Carter was on the correct track, and this was Carter so she probably was. "I shook his hand," the Colonel stated with dread. "And a few minutes later…" he left that sentence up in the air; they had both seen with there own eyes what happened next.

Yes, I finally updated!