Chapter 19 – Betrayal

Sam's eyes darted around the corridor; searching for a way out, even though she knew that it was an exercise in futility. Her hands had been bound behind her back, secured by a solid set of Imperial issue binders, as were the hands of every other person in her group. She'd had to calm Dentralla, persuading her that their best chance of getting out of here was to wait. The enraged Wookie had eventually subsided, though she continued to growl darkly.

She had tried to use the Force to keep the binders open just a fraction, allowing her to make her escape when she could, but she had found that the Stormtroopers must have been warned about. The trooper, on realising that he couldn't quite secure the binders had cuffed her, making her see spots for a moment.

She also knew that Corran would have tried to make them believe that they had secured them when they actually hadn't, putting the image into their brains, but when they didn't seem to exist in the Force, it was impossible to do.

The feeling of not being able to sense them was almost identical to that of the ysalimiri and yet different. Instead of being a bubble of anti-Force, it was as if the bubble had been moulded to their bodies, blocking only the beings inside the armour and none of the space around them.

Glancing at Jack, who was being marched along beside her, the rest of the group in pairs behind them, Sam met his gaze and sent him an apologetic look, berating herself for letting them get caught. At the same time, she sensed that he – and, for that matter everyone else in the group – was doing the same.

After a few minutes of being marched through bland corridors, they were led through a large set of double doors and into a fairly lavishly decorated room.

"Aw, crap!" Jack muttered as he took in the décor, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach.

"Wow, this is even tacky for a Hutt," Corran commented.

Jack shrugged, "For a Goa'uld, this is subtle."

"Ouch-"

"SILENCE!" Jack and Sam's fears were confirmed when they reached the room only to have a deep, inhuman voice bellow at them, its tone somewhere between amused, gleeful, and just slightly irritated.

Their hearts dropped like stones as another set of figures were revealed, already bound, guarded, and kneeling in the centre of the large room.

Daniel and Teal'c were at the front of the room, kneeling side by side, with the Solo-Skywalker clan lined up behind them and Beta team behind them and Threepio and Artoo at the back with restraining bolts firmly in place.

Sam and Jack were lead up, next to Daniel and Teal'c whilst the rest were lined up in their own respective groups.

An imposing figure, dressed in a gold-decked version of the Imperial uniform stepped down off of a dais, hands clasped behind his back as he strutted forwards. His eyes glowed red for a moment. Red? Sam didn't have time to muse on why they were red as he started to speak and she found her attention diverted.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the infamous SG-1…" he stepped up to Sam and grabbed her chin. "Re-united at last with the missing Major Carter." Sam glared at him, her skin crawling where his barely blue tinged skin touched hers.

"Hey, you leave her alone!" Jack exclaimed, anger bubbling inside him.

"Ah yes…Colonel Jack O'Neill…" he continued, releasing Sam and stepping away from her. "The Shol'va Teal'c…and of course the tenacious Daniel Jackson. Many times have the system lords tried to kill you, only to have you escape from their grasp."

"We're just slippery like that." Jack commented darkly.

"The system lords are fools; they underestimated the tenacity of the human race; something that I will not do. Bring me their belongings." A young lieutenant stepped forwards, leading a few Stormtroopers who carried all of their weapons, comlinks, GDO's and the like.

Stepping forwards, he grabbed a small, silver cylinder, holding it out in front of him and pressing the activator. "Ah, the Jedi Lightsaber." He spoke with a tone of interest and curiosity as the long, violet blade shot out, humming as he swished it through the air. "An ingenious weapon indeed…it can cut through any substance known to this Galaxy…"

Except Cortosis Ore, Sam thought, somehow relieved that he had not yet discovered the ore.

It was disconcerting for the Jedi in the room to see, and sense the Lightsaber but not be able to sense the person wielding it.

"Now…on to more pressing issues." The Goa'uld shut down the Lightsaber and moved back to exchange it for a small, black box. A GDO. "Tell me the code to penetrate the defences on Earth."

"No." Sam told him, hoping that if he knew her to be in charge of the mission he would interrogate her. She made her reassurance detectable to the other Jedi, sensing a minute amount of deception, and something hidden in the other Jedi before she slammed her mental barriers up. They would not be able to detect her pain. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack look sharply at her. She had accounted his unusual silence in the situation to either a change in his character over the last six years, or his concentration on using the Force.

"No? You dare to defy your God?"

"Hate to break it to you buddy, but you ain't no God." Sam silently cursed Han for his words.

"I was not addressing you, Solo," the Goa'uld bit back, waving a hand at a guard. "Kill him."

"No!" Leia yelled as the shot rang out, hitting him square in the chest. Chewie's enraged yell was punctuation to the sound of his body hitting the floor. Sam didn't turn around, merely glaring at the Goa'uld as she heard Luke try to placate the large Wookie, probably holding him in place with the Force.

Allow herself a brief contact with the Force, she found that Mara was holding the furious Dentralla in place, reminding her that they had a better chance for escape if more of them were alive. All of their grief was surrounding her as she heard the sounds of the body being dragged away. She slammed her barriers back up; if they were taking him away then the chances were that they were going to put him in a sarcophagus. If they had one. Hopefully.

"What is the code?"

"Go kiss a Hutt."

"Perhaps you need to be reminded of the power I have over you," he snarled, standing before her and raising his hand device. Sam briefly registered that it was different before she was enveloped in a wave of pain and heat. Tapping the Force, she numbed the pain and bled off the heat, though the damage was still visible in the bubbling and blistering skin of her forehead. "The code?"

Sam remained silent, glaring at him with a sadistic smile and suffocating the spark of her anger. "Never."

"Perhaps if it is one of your friends who suffers…"

"We won't tell you. We've resisted the hand device before and we'll do it again," Jack cut in bluntly, receiving only a blast with the hand device. Seeing that although the device was working as it should they were unlikely to give in to it before it killed them Hetarn, decided to change tact.

"Very well…" He turned and caught sight of Sam's Lightsaber. "It is fitting, don't you think, that we use the Jedi's weapons against them?" He activated it once again and stepped up to Sam, who glared at him, her lips curled in distaste.

In one quick move, he jabbed the tip of the blade through her right shoulder, holding it there for a moment before pulling it out. Having already used the Force to dull her nerves as much as she could, Sam managed to keep herself from wincing too much. Behind her, she heard Dentralla roar in rage and try to rise, apparently not making it and receiving a shot. She didn't dare turn and look, or show any signs of concern, nor would allow herself to use the Force to see; afraid that the others would be exposed to her pain, but she could hear Dentralla's continued grumbling and surmised that it was a warning shot. "Interesting," he said, putting his head to one side. "I'd heard that the Jedi could resist pain…of the physical kind at any rate. Tell me…who of your friends is to suffer first?"

Sam remained silent, glaring at him unflinchingly. Before he could act, an unknown man – a captain by the looks of it – came bustling in and bowed down in front of him before stepping close to him and telling him something.

Hetarn's eyes flashed red again. "What?" His face was a mask of anger and he reached out a hand to send a wave through the device, sending the young man careening against the far wall. "We will continue this later. Put them in room one." He stalked out of the room without a backward look at them as their guards moved forward to escort them away.

As soon as they arrived at 'room one,' Sam knew where they were. The room was filled with the echoes of pain and fear, a feeling that Sam knew far too well. This was the room that Telk had held them in after they had been brought through the 'Gate but before they had been given a basic immunity jab and a designated number with corresponding slave implant. They were lucky if they survived the jab, implantation, and tattooing process, though Sam had often wondered if she wouldn't have been better off if she'd died then and not had to suffer.

As soon as they door had shut behind them, echoing through the large room, all eyes had turned to Sam, dropping the façade of indifference.

Sam, however, didn't notice as she moved first to Jack's side, receiving a nod from him as he eased himself to the floor and then to Dentralla.

"'Tralla, you okay?" she asked the Wookie, who waved her off grumpily, cradling her left arm against her body, mirroring Sam's cradling of her right arm. At Dentralla's insistent questioning, she gave a one-armed shrug. "It's nothing."

"Nothing?" Corran asked incredulously.

"Corran, it's not even bleeding. Krix, your two outriders are alright?"

"Yes. Pik is a little singed…he didn't have time to warn us about the troopers."

"It's okay. Everyone else?"

"More or less. We're losing Kul'yer though. He took a shot to the side. With Bothan physiology…"

"Is he in pain?" Krix shook his head in an adopted human gesture. "Make him as comfortable as possible." Sam walked over to Luke, Mara, Leia, Corran, and Chewie. Derren had retreated to one corner by himself. Sam had noticed that there was something strange about him, but she had hardly spoken to him at all in the last few weeks.

Leia had tears streaming down her face as Luke held her and comforted her, an immense sadness evident on the faces of the others gathered. Chewie was shaking with rage but staying uncommonly quiet, and Sam considered telling them that there was hope for Han but decided against it. Just in case…there was no need to get their hopes up. Quietly informing them of what had happened and how they stood, she suggested that they take a corner and rest…no doubt they had a few bruises of their own.

Once again, she sensed that slight air of, not so much deception, but…misinformation but dismissed it as it was the wrong time and trusting that they would let her know if it was something significant.

Ordering the others to get as much rest as they could as well, Sam joined Daniel, Jack, and Teal'c in the corner nearest the door.

"How're you doing?" Daniel asked her, his eyes flicking to her injured shoulder.

"Okay. You?" She could see evidence of the ribbon device having been used on them, as well as faint traces on others in their group.

"We'll be okay. Hetarn – the Goa'uld - wasn't trying too hard with any of us. I think he was passing time until the rest of you arrived."

"He seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of what was going on," Teal'c added.

"Great, just what we need." Jack's voice was weak, and his head was rested against the cool wall behind him.

"You guys go get some rest; I'm going to put Jack into a healing trance." Sam sent them a significant look. They all knew he'd been under the influence of the hand device longest and without the aid that Sam's superior strength and skill in the Force, they knew that the pain would be immense. Getting up and moving away, they sent Sam silent looks of sympathy, which she studiously ignored.

Jack opened one eye and squinted at her. "You're not looking so great yourself."

"I'll live." For all of his apparent nonchalance, Sam could see the concern in his eyes. "I'll use the Force to heal after I put you under. You need to pick something to wake you up with, a key word, or phrase that isn't in common use."

Jack regarded her dubiously for a moment as if trying to read her mind to see whether she actually would heal herself, but her barriers were still up and he couldn't find a way in with his limited experience. "Right." He paused for a moment, thinking before giving her a small smile. "What about the name of someone who's very important to me?"

"Sure," Sam replied, raising an eyebrow dubiously.

"Homer."

Sam snorted, remembering a time when that had been one of the first things he remembered. "Homer it is then." She moved to his right and knelt beside him, gingerly taking his left hand in her right and placing her left hand across his forehead, using the Force to put him into a healing trance.

She felt his grip on her hand loosen as he went under, his whole body relaxing, although he didn't let go entirely.

Moving gingerly, Sam sat on his right, cradling her right arm across her body and still holding onto his left.

She wasn't in a situation where she could put herself into a healing trance, but she could sleep, safe in the knowledge that there were people keeping watch.


Daniel looked across at the two still figures of his friends. It had been only a few hours since they'd been left here, but they'd been out for most of that time.

"Six years ago, to see them sitting like that would have been a feat in itself." Daniel mused out loud to Teal'c.

Teal'c opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the large door began to open. Before anyone could move, the sounds of a fight could be heard, accompanied by a few gurgles that were instantly recognisable to some members of the team as the sound of a person having their throat cut.

"Han!" Luke and Leia's unmistakable surprise was soon answered by the cheery grin of the ex-smuggler. Leia rose and threw herself at him, embracing him and sharing a passionate kiss with him.

"Come on, we've gotta go."

"How did you-"

"Later, kid," Han cut Daniel off, gesturing for them all to get moving. Sam had woken up at the commotion and turned to Jack, muttering 'Homer' in his ear and waiting for him to wake up.

"Right, we need weapons, and the droids." Sam began, receiving a nod from Han.

"Already on it," he informed her as everyone gathered at the doorway. "They should be back any minute now."

"Who?"

"The Noghri."

"What Noghri?

"Leia's Noghri."

"Le- you should have told me," Sam informed him angrily, giving the Solo's, Skywalkers, and Corran a heartfelt glare.

"Sam now is not the time," Luke warned her as she pushed out to take point as the other two of the four Noghri appeared silently around the corner, dishing out weapons and gear and waiting for Mara to deftly slice off the restringing bolts on the two droids.

"Oh, I am pleased to see you're all well, Master Luke, and Master Solo, why, I thought you were dead!" Threepio was talking a mile a minute as they all prepped themselves and regained their weapons.

"I was, Goldenrod, but I'm back now."

"Alright," Sam interrupted them. "Let's go; and keep it quiet. Krix…" The Kalix Colonel nodded and sent his two outrider ferrets scampering down his body and along the corridor. Within a few moments, they'd returned, downloading the information into Krix's neural pathways.

"Next two corridors are clear." As one, they moved out with Jack and Teal'c taking point and Gelk and Chom bringing up the rear with the two Skywalkers. Sam accompanied those taking point; ready with her Lightsaber. They'd learned that they couldn't rely on the Jedi to sense any enemies up ahead, but the Jedi were still the best fighters and defenders they had.

They continued that way as they made their way through the corridors, always heading towards the 'Gate, knowing that it would be less well defended than the ships.

When they reached the doors to the gate room, Sam motioned silently for half to go one side, and half the other side of the door as Artoo slotted himself into the interface and worked on opening the doors.

As soon as the doors opened, Corran, Luke, and Mara streamed in, instantly deflecting the blaster bolts that zipped their way and leaving the others free to come behind them and take out the shooters that they were unable to sense.

Sam stood back a little, reaching out with the Force as the others took out the Stormtroopers. Reaching out with her left hand, she pressed the air in front of her eight times, each corresponding to the space on the DHD where she knew the symbols to be. Reaching with the Force one last time, she used it to depress the large orange dialling button, the Kawoosh of the Stargate event horizon whirling into view.

Just as she was about to call out to Artoo to send the signal, hoping for a quick getaway, her danger sense tingled and she ducked and rolled forwards, bringing her Lightsaber to bear.

"Derren?" she asked in surprise, deflecting a stray blaster bolt slightly clumsily.

His eyes flashed as he advanced on her suddenly, forcing her back towards the 'gate.

"That is the name of my host." The man who used to be Derren sneered at her. "This would have been so much simpler if you had given me the codes for the Earth Iris as well as the other Jedi."

All the while, Sam found herself being steadily pushed towards the 'gate. Had she been uninjured then she had no doubt that she would have been able to defeat the Derren-Impostor within a matter of minutes. As it was, her injured shoulder had left her unable to wield her Lightsaber properly and the pain was stopping her from being able to concentrate properly.

Feeling her feet knock against the back of the steps onto the raised dais where they Stargate stood, Sam felt an idea formulate in her mind. Leaping backwards and flipping, she landed slightly clumsily on the top step, meaning that not-Derren was forced to follow her up there. She simultaneously became vaguely aware that the battle below had finished and that someone had called her name.

"But that would take all the fun out of it," Sam retorted breathlessly.

Derren leapt up to land beside her in a sloppy move that left him open to attack. Pivoting on her left foot, Sam brought her right foot around kicked him firmly in the chest, using the Force to add momentum to it as he staggered backwards, falling through the Stargate only to thud against the closed iris.

At least, that was what she had intended, but she found her foot caught in an iron grip.

Her mouth formed a surprised 'Oh' as she was dragged through the 'gate with him.

The remaining group stared, horrified at the 'gate, knowing that no one had sent the iris code, and that no one had contacted Hammond on the other end.

A burst of fire from the door they'd entered from announced the arrival of more Stormtroopers and the loss of some of their own and Jack found himself bursting into action. "Send the code and get the radio going. Grab the wounded and head for the 'Gate. Jedi, give us cover!" He was dimly aware of a large, hairy form running up, and through the 'gate but he'd been unable to stop Dentralla.


"Un-scheduled off-world activation."

Hammond looked away from the Tok'ra representative, wondering who it might be. There were no teams scheduled back any time soon and the only team MIA was SG-1, who had been gone for months. For the first time in about 12 years, he had actually given up hope of his star team returning at all.

Pushing himself out of his chair, he made his way down to the control room as fast as his portly, ageing body could manage, the Tok'ra all but forgotten.

"Sergeant?"

"We're not re- wait. Receiving an IDC now, Sir. Its…SG-1!"

Hammond – now a three star General – stared out of the window at the closed iris, debating whether or not to open it. For all he knew, it could be that they'd been tortured for the entire time they'd been missing and only now had they given in. He also knew that they would die first. But there were other ways of finding these things out. They would radio if it was them. But they might not have a radio.

Hammond debated this out with himself in a matter of seconds, coming to a decision in no time.

"Open the iris." He moved over to a phone and ordered a triple-strength defence team down there.

All eyes were on the rippling event horizon, waiting to see who would come through. They waited for several long minutes before the shimmering puddle rippled and a figure fell backwards through, clutching on to the foot of a second person and pulling them through.

"Hold your fire," he couldn't be sure whether or not the first figure was one of his team, though he knew for certain that the second figure was not. The second figure was unmistakably female. Something none of SG-1 were. Anymore.

Those gathered watched in fascination as the two landed, and seemed to realise something, springing to their feet within split seconds. The second – female – figure had her back to him and he saw that the second was not anyone he recognised, but he was still reluctant to open fire unless he knew that they would not come quietly. Moving to the microphone, he was surprised and mesmerised when they both raised silver cylinders and activated them, revealing what he could only describe as 'laser swords'. One was a vivid violet, the other a muted red.

He watched in fascination as they thrust and parried; the woman obviously weak in the right arm, her blocks getting slower and slower as the man battered away at her relentlessly.

The woman suddenly shifted and flipped backward off of the ramp and onto the floor below, the SF's shifting their weapons to track them.

The man's swing narrowly missed her, instead slicing into the lighted panels that lined the ramp and causing them to flicker and spark. The man growled angrily and, Hammond noticed with horror, his eyes flashed, making the SF's tense. "Hold your fire," he ordered, not wanting to risk the woman until they knew more.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, the old adage sprung into his mind, though he knew that it was often not true.

His attention was snapped back towards the 'gate as it rippled again and a tall, weapon bearing, hairy biped came dashing through, skidding to a halt at the sight of all the people, eyes obviously scanning for something.

Surprised and apprehensive, the SF's tensed just a little more and, like a spring coiled too far, they snapped when it roared and darted forwards, brandishing what looked like a crossbow.

They opened fire on it, aiming to cut it down but were surprised when their bullets met some kind of shield. He became suddenly aware of the two duelling figures again as the second – the woman – held out a hand, as if to stop the bullets firing. He could hear her yelling to stop, a voice that was eerily familiar, though he couldn't place it.

The man – Goa'uld, he now realised – took his opportunity, lashing out with a blow that would have cut into the woman from shoulder through to her opposite hip. Instead, he found that he was being thrown backwards with terrifying force and the tip of his blade merely scorched a line down her front, though Hammond could not tell how bad it was.

"Hold your fire!" Hammond ordered once again, running on instinct this time.

A few moments later, he was aware of the crackle of a radio.

"General, this is O'Neill."

"Go ahead, Colonel." Hammond's attention was now divided between the duel and Jack O'Neill's voice.

"We're under fire, and bringing some friends. Do not fire, repeat, do not fire, no matter how strange they look."

"Affirmative."

"And get a med. team ready, would you?"

"Ready when you are, Colonel." Through his distraction, Hammond noticed that Colonel O'Neill sounded weary, pained and more than a little sad.

"Incoming now, Sir." As if in punctuation, he saw the event horizon ripple, but his attention was snatched away by the battered figure of the Goa'uld as it sprung back at the woman, having somehow counteracted much of the force that it had been thrown across the room with.

Its eyes glowed again – that was about all that he could see in the shadowed side of the room, at the distance he was - as it thrust at the weary woman, an anger instigated move that left its left side open. It was a shame that the woman's sword was not in her left hand, Hammond thought as the Goa'uld batted her blade away. There was a collected gasp of surprise when a second blade appeared in her left hand. Appearing as if summoned there, she swept it up and buried it in him to the hilt, passing through the neck on its way.

As if at a tennis match, he found he attention flicking back to the ramp, where he now saw a battered group of individuals, many alien as well as human and two robots of some kind.

He was just in time to see Jack O'Neill step through the gate, walking backwards and wielding an unfamiliar weapon. As the gate cut out, he turned, a carefully schooled blank look on his face…it lasted right up to the point that he caught sight of the figures beside the gate.

In a show of astounding speed and athleticism, he vaulted over the side of the ramp and ran up to them, shouting what Hammond could have sworn was 'Sam!'

Just as Jack reached them, the Goa'uld's eyes glowed one final time, and it fell completely, all three blades switching themselves off.

Blue lightening seemed to start to emanate from the fallen body and someone yelled, "Take cover!"

Hammond hit the button for the blast shields to descend; the last thing he was able to see was Colonel O'Neill sweeping up the woman and pulling her away, shielding her body with his.