Thanks for the reviews, Froggy0319 and Pain in the Mikta. Hope you stay the course.
DISTANT MEMORIES
By Lingren
Previously:
"SG-1, you have a go. You have 3 days Colonel. Good luck out there people. God speed!"
"Thank you sir," Jack said, snapping off a quick salute. "Ready kids?" he asked just before he dashed up the ramp and leapt into the shimmering event horizon.
They moved as one and followed their intrepid CO into the unknown.
Chapter 2
Jack's momentum kept him going as he stepped too rapidly from the gate, but he regained his balance quickly before he could fall flat on his face and injure his pride. He brought his weapon up to bear, ready for action while he protected the rest of his team as they too stumbled from the wormhole.
All except Teal'c that is, he however, stepped calmly as usual from the event horizon and brought his staff weapon to readiness.
"So...ah...where's our escort?" Daniel asked bewildered, looking round at the empty clearing.
"You tell me Daniel. I have a feeling I'm not gonna like this. Carter?"
"I don't know sir. Maybe they were delayed."
"O'Neill!" Teal'c's quiet warning alerted Jack that something was happening. "I detect a movement through the bushes to your right."
Jack and Daniel swiftly turned to the right and Jack's finger twitched impatiently on his weapon's trigger. While Sam kept watching their backs.
"Oh yeah! Did I mention this doesn't feel right?" Jack muttered to his team.
Daniel, being Daniel was ready to make contact with the unknown forces that were watching them closely.
"Ah...Hello!" he shouted, waving his arm at them. "We're SG-1, from the planet Earth."
Jack was almost ready to throttle Daniel.
"Daniel!" he hissed turning towards the younger man, wishing he wasn't quite so naïve when it came to making first contact. "Why don't you..."
"Uh...Colonel!" Sam warned.
Jack swung round again in time to see armed soldiers stepping from the cover of the trees all round to surround them and the gate, their weapons held loosely in front of them.
"Crap!" Jack cursed under his breath.
They kept moving forward until their apparent leader stood about 10 metres in front of Jack.
Too late to back down now, he introduced himself.
"Hi! I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill," Jack began. He was still a little wary of these people; they could be just about anyone who happened by at that time. "We've just dropped by at the invitation of the Government officials of..."
"...Ban Danara!" Daniel interrupted quickly. He didn't want Jack to say Banana again and risk upsetting these people.
"I was gonna say that!" Jack snipped. "What?" he asked as Daniel glared at him.
"We don't want to upset them Jack and I know you!"
"Daniel!" Jack hissed in exasperation again, then relented and waved a hand for him to continue. "Okay. It's all yours."
So far the soldiers hadn't said a word, but as Daniel glared at Jack and he glared right back. The locals decided that it was time to make a move.
In a blur of action, Jack caught movement and the sound of gunshots. He froze when he caught sight of Sam falling unconscious to the ground; a little grunt of surprise and pain wrenched from her lips as she fell. Jack could feel his heart clench as she lay unmoving.
"NOOOOO!" he screamed in denial. Sam couldn't be dead. No way! How could he have missed the signs that this 'meet 'n greet' would all go to hell in a hand-basket so quickly?
Then in the few seconds before he could react, he saw Daniel go down too. He was well and truly enraged by now, angry with himself that he'd been so easily distracted and it had possibly cost the lives of dearest friends. He opened fire on the assembled troops with a ferocious vigour, dropping himself onto one knee behind the DHD for shelter while he fired towards the enemy like a man possessed. He saw Teal'c get hit, but the Jaffa bravely carried on, until even he was beaten too.
After a brief but intense battle in which Jack killed or maimed at least a dozen or more soldiers he found himself surrounded. He stood up hesitantly, dropping his P-90 to the ground, then carefully lifted his hand gun and dropped it onto the ground too and raised his hands. He knew defeat when it stared him in the face. He cast a forlorn look once more at the inert bodies of his team before he turned his eyes back to the leader of these men and momentarily closed his eyes, swallowing hard. Waiting for the inevitable. He was hoping to be tied up and taken away, but his next breath was snatched from his lungs when he was shot several times. He collapsed to the ground in agony and oblivion tugged insistently at his consciousness.
Before he gave up the fight though, Jack forced his eyes to remain open long enough to cast one last look at the sight of Sam lying motionless at the foot of the gate. She meant everything to him. Sam was the light of his day, the very sun his world revolved round; now he'd lost her, and his own life no longer mattered. Her name fell from his lips even as the darkness swept him away.
OoOoOoOoO
Major Samantha Carter woke slowly, gradually becoming aware of her surroundings. It certainly didn't smell like any infirmary that she knew of. If anything it smelt like...unwashed bodies? Lots of unwashed bodies. There was a constant murmuring in the background, like that of many hushed voices. Her eyes flew open and she looked up into the worried bespectacled face of Daniel Jackson.
"Daniel!" she gasped. "Where are we?".
"In some sort of prison Sam," Daniel replied gloomily. "Don't know where though. You got a headache?"
"Yeah! And sore ribs too," she groaned, rubbing away the ache. She suddenly recalled everything that happened in vivid clarity, especially getting shot, so now she scrabbled about looking for the wound.
"Ah...Don't bother Sam," Daniel sighed. "You won't find anything! They must have used some sort of stun weapons."
"Really? It felt so...real," she gasped in disbelief.
"Ya think?" Daniel sighed, unconsciously mimicking Jack's expression.
"Where are Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill?" Sam asked looking round for them.
"Ah...no idea actually. There's just us in here with these people." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the other prisoners. "I can't get much out of them except... Sam, we stepped right into the middle of a civil war. We were supposed to meet with the Government troops but somehow we're prisoners of the Opposition. It appears that their troops captured the gate a couple of hours before we arrived."
"Oh God! Daniel we have to find out what happened to the Colonel and Teal'c."
"I know Sam, but I don't think these people know much about what's really going on. I only know this much because I got chatting with a soldier who got captured when the Stargate was taken. He doesn't even know what happened to the rest of his troop. He was part of the official escort that was supposed to meet us. Jack and Teal'c could be stuck somewhere in another prison camp miles away from here. Reynol said there are lots of these camps dotted all over the place. This war's been going on for years apparently, and neither side appears to be winning."
"Reynol?"
"The guy I spoke to. He'll be back in a minute he's trying to find out if anyone knows anything else about what's going on out there. This place is rife with rumours, though none of which makes any kind of sense to me."
"Since when has war ever made sense anyway Daniel?" Sam sighed, stretching her body against the stiffness from lying on the solid ground.
They both leant back against the wall and sat in quiet contemplation.
After a few minutes, Reynol returned with some food he'd managed to grab when the guards had thrown the food bag into the cell. It had been every man for himself, but being a soldier he managed to grab enough for the three of them without being threatened.
"Hello, you must be Sam," he smiled, reaching out a hand to shake hers.
"Yeah. Hi!" she grimaced in reply, not at all happy at their situation.
"Well it's a sure bet your companions aren't here," Reynol said, sharing out the food. "No one has seen a tall dark man with a tattoo on his forehead, or a silver haired man, both of whom were supposedly dressed like you."
"What will happen to these people and those at the other camps?" Sam asked, not sure she really wanted to know. She could only assume that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c had survived, just as they had. She refused to believe they might possibly be dead.
"It depends," the soldier shrugged. "Most of the civilians are released at the end of the week. The rest of us, soldiers like myself, will be reconditioned and sent back into the battlefield."
"What do you mean...reconditioned?" Daniel frowned. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that,"
"It means that their memories will be wiped clean and they are stamped anew to fight for the side whichever holds them," Reynol answered calmly. "It happens all the time."
Daniel and Sam exchanged a worried grimace.
"You two will probably be interrogated before being tossed back through the gate again, forbidden to ever return again. I don't think they will harm you but they will be wary of your intentions.
"Do they always use stun guns?" asked Sam wondering if somehow this war was something rather like the war games they had stumbled upon for training Apophis' young warriors to impersonate the SGC troops at that time. They had used similar weapons.
"Not always. If they wish their prisoners to live they use stun guns. Mostly on the civilians though. For enemy soldiers they occasionally use real weapons. It all depends on the circumstances and who the unfortunate victims are!" Reynol informed them knowledgably.
"Is there any way to get out of here?" Daniel whispered, desperate to find his friends and escape from this nightmare world.
"None. No-one has ever escaped to my knowledge, and this is the third time I have been here in this situation," Reynol explained.
"The third time?" Daniel and Sam gasped out together. "How can you tell? I mean, if they wipe all memory..."
"Some of the prisoners recognised me from before. We're not supposed to remember but sometimes you do."
Sam's face paled and Daniel held onto her hand, offering a little comfort, though whether it was for her benefit or his, he wasn't sure.
"So you expect to be 're-conditioned' again?"
Reynol nodded and shrugged his shoulders.
"I am a good soldier. I have obviously survived the reconditioning process several times, which means I have been captured by both sides, reconditioned again and sent back out into the fray once more. So the cycle continues."
Sam was appalled. She just couldn't imagine what it must feel like. It sounded like both the Government and the Opposition forces were as bad as each other.
"What does this reconditioning actually do?"
"They wipe your memories clean and then brainwash you into fighting for their side."
"Daniel if they did that to the Colonel..."
"They would not!" Reynol replied quickly. "He is a stranger among us. I have only seen them take known soldiers away from the enemy. They will not harm him or your dark friend."
"God, I hope you're right!" Sam sighed.
Their attention was snagged by the opening of the cell door, and two soldiers entered, sorting through the crowd.
They stopped in front of the two SGC members and then pulled Daniel to his feet.
"Come with us!" they ordered.
Sam shot to her feet to object, but Reynol held her back.
She fought off Reynol's hands with anger burning in her eyes as Daniel yelled back at her that he would be okay.
"I said earlier that they will not harm him. You and he will most likely be gone from here before long."
"Not without the others we won't!" Sam spat determinedly. She wasn't about to leave Teal'c and the man she loved behind. No way!
TBC
