CHAPTER TWO: RETURN TO CONSCIOUSNESS

Someone was screaming. She couldn't open her eyes to see who though, but when the scream sounded again, she realised that the pained sound had been torn from her own throat. Her body was on fire, she was sure of it. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, and she'd lost most of the feeling in her arms, though at this point it wasn't a bad thing.

"Tell me Tau'ri, and I will grant you a short reprieve."

Janet Fraiser lay perfectly still, whimpers escaping from bloodied lips. She couldn't think properly, couldn't comprehend what was happening to her. She'd lost time somewhere or other. She could remember kneeling over Airman Wells as he recorded a farewell message for his wife and unborn son, and then there was darkness. She could remember waking between then and now to bright lights and a claustrophobic feeling, but it was a faint memory and possibly caused by delirium.

"You will tell me, Tau'ri filth, and I will cease for the time being."

Janet managed to lift herself slowly and painfully onto her hands and knees, barely registering the fact that her clothing was missing as she spat out a mouthful of blood. She managed to get her right eye to open, the dried and caked blood cracking to allow her a small amount of vision.

Anubis' black robes swirled about her. Surrounding the room were five of the Kull Warriors along with a dozen Jaffa watching passively as she was tortured to within an inch of her life.

She opened her mouth and managed to croak out the only answer she'd been willing to give in the painful hours within Anubis' clutches. "Fraiser, Janet, Major. United States Air Force. 11-921-2325-349."

She was thrown to the ground again, and blackness descended upon her. She gratefully fell unconscious and Anubis looked on angrily.

"Return her to her cell. Inform me when she awakens."

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Anubis stared dispassionately down at his prisoner who lay naked and strapped to a metal table. Her eyes were glistening with tears and she was whimpering in pain as he circled the table, her eyes tracking his movements.

He lifted a small metal object and placed it several inches from her face. He waited until she'd focused on the golf-ball sized object, the metal spikes protruding from it looked as dangerous as they were, and Anubis took great pleasure in seeing his prisoner try and curl up in fear, only to be stopped by the restraints. He chuckled softly and watched in amusement as his prisoner seemed to straighten her posture and raise her chin defiantly.

"If you do not tell me what I wish to know…this device will be implanted into your brain, and your knowledge will be transferred to my ships memory banks."

His voice was soft, malicious, and the two-toned metallic sound that the Goa'uld spoke with. Except, this Goa'uld was nothing like the others. He definitely wasn't human, and if the rumours were true, he hadn't been for a long time.

"Now Tau'ri…what information will you tell me?"

"Do it," she dared him through clenched teeth. "Won't tell…you'll have to…kill me."

"You think I bluff?" he demanded angrily. "I will not hesitate to implant this device. I learnt so much of your world from Jonas Quinn."

"It won't work," she replied confidently, staring at him with defiant eyes. "It'll kill me the second you activate it. Jonas was more than human…his body could handle it. Mine won't."

Anubis almost growled with anger. Instead, he held his hand device over her heart and activated the stone within, sending his prisoner's body into convulsions. When he pulled his hand away from her, he noticed that after her coughing fit, she actually had the audacity to laugh at him.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"You…you won't win," she coughed. "And you know it."

"I am a God!" he yelled.

"You're…nothing," she retorted. "And you'll get nothing from me."

And after a vicious backhand, she was unconscious once more.

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It had been a week and still Anubis had discovered nothing of worth from the woman he'd tortured so thoroughly. If he hadn't been so angry, he might have been impressed that a Tau'ri woman was strong enough to withhold information under duress.

"My lord."

Anubis' musings were interrupted by one of his many Jaffa.

"You have discovered information from the drone that was sent?" Anubis demanded.

"Yes my lord," the Jaffa replied. "The colonnade had much writing on it, and the most learned of your servants was able to decipher its meaning. He believes it to be a repository of the Ancients."

Anubis fell silent, and if he'd had facial features, he'd have grinned evilly and stroked his goatee.

"That is excellent news," Anubis replied.

"My lord, you know that no Goa'uld or Jaffa has ever been able to access this sort of technology of the Ancients," the Jaffa said nervously, hoping that his god wouldn't kill the messenger.

Anubis fell silent again, contemplating what he knew to be true. He needed the knowledge of the Ancients in order to find the Lost City. There, he knew there would be weapons like no others. Except no one who carried a symbiote would be able to access the technology left by the Ancients. He had none in his service who did not carry a goa'uld larvae.

No one in his service…

"The Tau'ri woman," Anubis said decisively. "Take her to the planet. The Ancients technology will work on a Tau'ri …"

"Of course my lord," the Jaffa replied, bowing deeply before scurrying out the door and towards the prisoners cell.

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Janet struggled violently as she was frogmarched to the Ring Room, and forcibly taken to the planet below. She had no idea what was happening to her, but she wanted to get away from her captors. Unfortunately for her, a week with no food, and only minimal amounts of water had taken its toll. She was lucky to be alive, she knew, and it was only the constant use of a sarcophagus that was keeping her that way.

Unfortunately for the doctor, Anubis never allowed the device to heal her completely. It was enough to keep her alive and completely miserable, but never enough to leave her at full strength. She had to admit that the goa'uld certainly knew how to keep her spirits at an all time low.

But she'd taken oaths when she'd joined the Air Force. If she was ever captured, she would do everything in her power to escape, and she would never give up any information. She had kept the second part of her oath, now she needed to do everything possible to escape.

Once on the planet, she was dragged towards a ruined building, the Jaffa guards pulling her up when she continuously tripped on the long pants that she'd been given, the thin clothing doing little to keep her warm. The shirt she wore was far too large, the hem of it hitting her mid-thigh, but she was grateful to be covered once more.

They pulled to a stop next to a blank portion of the wall. One of the guards walked to the column opposite the wall and pressed a small circular device. Janet jumped slightly as she saw a dark black…something emerge from the wall.

She squinted at it, knowing it looked familiar, but her tired mind couldn't think of where she'd seen it before.

The moment she was shoved closer, she had a flash of insight that she could have done without. Looking inside the device, she could see hundreds of lights shining and moving within in indistinct patterns. And then it came to her.

She knew what this was. She'd heard Colonel O'Neill describe what he'd seen. She'd seen pictures of the Ancients repository and she'd monitored Colonel O'Neill's health for the days that had followed his encounter with this exact device.

Her struggles doubled, and she rejoiced when she managed to get one arm free. She swung wildly at the Jaffa, but was overwhelmed quickly, the Jaffas using their brute strength and advantageous size to subdue her and hold her in front of the device.

She closed her eyes, hoping that perhaps the device wouldn't work. She knew it was a long shot, but she knew what Anubis' plan was, and she would be damned before she helped him find out anything that could be used against Earth.

She yelped when she felt something strong grip her head, knowing without a doubt that it wasn't either of her Jaffa guards. She felt two sharp pinpricks on either side of her forehead, and her eyes snapped open involuntarily. She tried to close them, but she was completely paralysed, staring at the flashing lights as her mind was accessed and violated, centuries worth of knowledge being placed into her brain and changing her very core self.

When the device let go of her, she slumped down, only to be caught by her two guards. She passed out just as she heard the telltale sound of the Stargate being activated.

"The chapaa'ai has opened," one of the Jaffa noted. "We must return this Tau'ri to Lord Anubis before we are discovered."

The Jaffa slung Janet over his shoulder, the two of them walking quickly towards the control rings. They noted the green uniforms of the intruders and quickly ringed back up to Anubis' ship.

"Were you successful?" Anubis demanded.

"The device activated when the healer looked into it, my lord," the Jaffa carrying the doctor replied. "We evacuated when the chapaa'ai opened. It was a group from the Tau'ri, my lord."

"We cannot allow them to discover the device," Anusbie stated firmly. "Send two of the gliders to destroy it."

"Of course my lord," the empty-handed Jaffa replied obediently before racing out of the room to ready four other Jaffa.

Anubis ordered the other Jaffa to place the Healer on the altar in the centre of the room. After relieving himself of his light burden, the Jaffa vanished from the room, leaving Anubis to stare down at what he hoped would be his newest ally, and his greatest source of information.

All the knowledge of the Ancients…now all he had to do was extract it from her.

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"We must not allow this device to fall into the hands of Anubis," Teal'c stated, his eyes tracking the two Deathgliders that flew overhead.

"Fine," Jack replied, stepping forward with a block of C4, ready to rig the device to explode.

"Jack!" Daniel yelled in horror.

"Sir he's right," Sam argued. "If we destroy it we lose our only chance to find the location of the Lost City."

"O'Neill," Teal'c said softly, his voice urging them to hurry in their decision as the gliders returned to try and again destroy the colonnade and SG-1 with it.

"Ah crap! Alright then, what?" Jack asked impatiently.

Daniel lunged towards the device in the wall, but was quickly intercepted by Jack who slammed him against the opposite wall. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Jack somebody has to do it," Daniel argued. "The answer is in there! If we don't find the Lost City we're as good as dead. Let me do it."

"And who does the translating when you go Ancient?" Jack retorted. The foursome took cover as the hail of lasers from the gliders came close to their position. Jack knew he was probably going to regret his next action, but it was the only one that would make sense. Teal'c couldn't access the technology because he was Jaffa, Carter was far too valuable, and there was no way in hell he would let her do it, and Daniel would be the only one to understand him when he lost all of his English skills.

He took off his cap and handed it to Daniel. "In fact you're the one person who CAN do it."

Before anyone could stop him, Jack stepped forward…

"Jack!" "Sir!"

…and allowed the device to begin overwriting his mind with the knowledge of the Ancients.

Enjoy and review pliz?

Toodles.

DKG.