"Jack, hear me out." Said Daniel Jackson from his usual seat at the briefing room table. Colonel Jack O'Neill paced anxiously back and forth throughout the room refusing to listen.

"No." said Jack harshly as he walked toward the door.

"Colonel O'Neill, you are not dismissed from this briefing!" reprimanded General Hammond. "What were you saying, Dr. Jackson." He continued as O'Neill flopped back into his chair like a child who was made to sit in the corner.

"What if this was somehow a cultural misunderstanding. What if they didn't mean us any–" continued Daniel.

"Are you insane, Daniel? O'Neill shot back. "Have you completely lost your mind? You've been in there. You've seen her. Are you honestly going to tell me that they didn't mean to harm her?" Colonel O'Neill was out of his chair again unable to sit still.

"Yes, Jack, I am." defended Daniel.

"How do you figure, Daniel?" asked Dr. Frasier. "Sam said they experimented on her. Judging from the condition she was in when you brought her back, I don't see how they couldn't have known they were hurting her."

"I know that, but still they're trying to contact us now. Don't we have to respond? Isn't that our duty?" continued Daniel.

"They attacked us first, DanielJackson. We did nothing to provoke them." Teal'c added thoughtfully.

"What if we did?" offered Daniel.

"Daniel!" was all Jack could say as he looked at him. He looked at him like he could have killed Daniel where he sat.

"Colonel." General Hammond's voice had him once again in his seat.

"What if they didn't use a Goa'uld stun grenade on us. If they had, why didn't they use it again when we were attacking them?" continued Daniel.

"How else could they have gotten past Teal'c's watch?" asked General Hammond.

"They drugged Sam with something, right?" Daniel was on a roll now. "When they brought her back to us in the cell, she was out of it. Maybe they used the same thing on Teal'c. We know they can move silently, and the three of us were already asleep. We may never know."

"Like a sedative?" asked Dr. Frasier.

"Exactly," said Daniel. Relieved to finally have someone on his side.

"Okay," Said Jack, rubbing his head. "Okay, they drugged all of us. So what do they want now?"

"Maybe they want to help?" offered Daniel.

"That is unlikely, DanielJackson." answered Teal'c

"Why?" Dr. Frasier asked before Daniel had the chance.

"Why? Said Jack. He was growing tired of the whole theory. "Because they tried to grab her again when we got to the gate. Because they tried to stop us from taking her in the first place. General, I say we send a bomb through to Oz and blow the yellow brick road to dust."

"The Ozian that grabbed her, died, Jack. It just fell over dead." Daniel reminded him.

"Yeah, we caught a break," said Jack sarcastically.

"Maybe that was what happened or maybe something else killed it. Maybe there are Ozians that don't agree with what the others did to Sam." Daniel hypothesized.

"What are you suggesting, Doctor," General Hammond wanted answers.

"We let them through. We try to get them to help Sam." Suggested Daniel.

"No way in hell am I putting her through that again." bellowed O'Neill.

"Sir, we may have to." Dr. Frasier said from across the table. She knew she had no other way of helping Sam.

"Not you too," retorted Jack.

"Sir, I don't trust them anymore than you do, but were out of options." Dr. Frasier tried to explain. She paused and they all knew what her next words would be. "She's dying, Sir. Her internal organs are deteriorating. She's bleeding internally. She's going to die. It's going to be painful. And I can't help her." She spoke with such heartfelt conviction that no one said a word.

"Let them through," ordered General Hammond. These were his final words. He got up and walked into his office. O'Neill stared at Dr. Frasier, she held his gaze, refusing to give in. He knew this was their only option; he just didn't want to admit it.

OoOoOoOo

The Iris was opened and one Ozian came through the gate, holding a radio in his massive hand. "SG-1," it said looking curiously at the armed troops that filled the room. O'Neill, Daniel, and Teal'c approached: Daniel made motions for the creature to follow him, Teal'c had a Zat leveled at its head, and Jack simply followed behind.

When they entered the infirmary, they saw Dr. Frasier and a nurse holding Carter down. . She was fighting hard against them. Trying hard to get up.

"Doc?" Asked Jack.

"I can't give her anymore pain medication, Sir." Dr. Frasier was about to go into a medical explanation when she saw the creature enter the room. Her mouth just dropped open.

"Dr. Janet Frasier meet the Jolly Green Giant." introduced O'Neill. He relieved the nurse and held Carter firmly in place with his hands on her shoulders. She was looking frantically from the creature then back to her CO.

"Daniel has a theory," he said close to her face. Carter nodded, afraid to open her mouth for what may come out. She trusted her team. Daniel's theories usually panned out. Of course they usually didn't involve her life, but still she trusted him and fought back the fear as the creature approached her. It placed a finger over her navel and began tracing the reverse of the line it had followed in the cave.

O'Neill looked at Carter, who again only nodded at him, but that was enough. He let her go and the finger continued its way up the center of her body to her face. Then its hand covered her, she smelled the now familiar aroma and inhaled deeply, welcoming the painless darkness she had come to expect, but it never came. Instead she heard it speak to her. Not the ear piercing chanting that had been haunting her, but the thoughts of the creature. She laid perfectly still trying to take in everything she was hearing.

"What's it doing, Daniel?" asked Jack.

"I don't know, but I think we should let it do it," answered Daniel.

Jack grumbled under his breath but didn't openly object. Somehow Carter was calm for the first time in hours and he wasn't going to compromise that. The creature then removed a large round instrument from the box he carried and placed it over Carter's abdomen. It glowed green when it came in contact with her skin. The other hand remained over her face.

Carter couldn't believe what she was hearing. The creature was communicating with her by means of telepathy. He told her that his name is Kad'nerb. His people were once slaves to the Goa'uld many centuries ago, but they had managed to gain freedom through an uprising. Since that time, many of them adopted the behaviors of their oppressors. Kad'nerb, and a few of his followers, sought new ways to live. They did not believe in the 'experimenting" that the some of the others participated in to gain knowledge. He wanted a better, more honorable life for his people. "My God, he's just like Teal'c," thought Sam as she tried desperately to get the attention of the others.

Her voice was heard, although muffled by the creature's hand. She grabbed at the blankets around her and started to thrash around again. Thinking the creature was hurting her; Teal'c activated his Zat, prepared to fire.

"Hang on, T." They were all surprised to hear Jack's objection.

"Colonel," Dr. Frasier began to object, but she followed O'Neill's gaze instead. The once green device now glowed bright red and Sam's once red abdomen was now it's usual pale white.

"Yes," said Kad'nerb. "Your friend and I fight for the same cause. We both want freedom for our people." He continued to tell her that her separation from her team had been sabotage on his part. The chanting that they assumed was a war cry was simply a way for Kad'nerb to distinguish those aligned with him from the ones who were not. The others, he explained, never became capable of speech; they thought it unnecessary. He went on to explain that SG-1 had arrived on to the new home world of Kad'nerb's followers, but they had escaped before contact could be made.

"You are the one who stopped them from taking me when we were trying to escape?" Sam asked the alien. They continued to communicate only in thought.

"Yes," he replied. "My people are linked in many ways. With enough minds we caninfluence the behavior of another, even their death." Sam was stunned. She didn't know what to think. The creature was helping her, curing her. She could feel it.

Another device was retrieved from the box. The creature then ran it over her arm, revealing the mending bone and the pins that held it together, nodding approval at Dr. Frasier.

"We can help you." Sam said, feeling the device running over her arm. "We can help your people."

"The others will never allow you to return." Kad'nerb replied sadly.

"You can stay here," she pleaded with him. "Let us help you."

"I have done what I came here to do. I cannot leave my people," he said simply and she felt him pull his hand away from her face.

The creature removed his hand from Carter's face. She tried to force her body up from the bed trying to regain the physical contact they had shared.

O'Neill put his hands back on her shoulders, pushing her down. "Easy, Carter."

"Sir." Said Carter between deep breaths.

"Relax, Major." Said O'Neill from above her.

She tried to explain, tried to get them to stop Kad'nerb from leaving. She knew she could convince them to help the creature that had just saved her life. Sam tried to explain, but she couldn't. She felt the sedative still creeping into her system. She stopped struggling against Jack's arms and fell back on the bed.

The creature again touched her face. "Thank you," she whispered before everything went completely dark. The Ozian nodded in a way that again, reminded them of Teal'c and then turned to leave. The room let out one shared breath that none had realized they were holding as Teal'c followed Kad'nerb all the way to the gate room, still ready to fire if necessary.

Daniel looked from Sam to the departing Ozian. "I should go try to talk –" he said.

"Go," allowed O'Neill as Daniel headed down the hall after Teal'c. Dr. Frasier ordered another round of tests to confirm that Sam really was healed.

00000000

It had been a little over two hours since their alien visitor had come and gone. Carter was starting to wake up. Her head rolling from side to side and she was mumbling something O'Neill couldn't quite make out. As a way of getting her attention he asked, as if nothing had transpired that was out of the ordinary, "So, Carter, what's new?" He then plopped back down in his chair. He hadn't left the room while she slept, but took the opportunity to rebuild his cabin.

"Where is he?" she asked him, her voice cracking.

"He went home," O'Neill said as he handed her some water.

Carter bolted upright. "Sir, we have to stop him. We can't just–" She started to say, but O'Neill wouldn't let her finish.

"They took you. They hurt you. They came close to killing you. I think helping you was the least the green guys could do. And I personally don't ever want to see them again." Continued O'Neill.

"Sir." Carter tried to speak again.

"Carter, I don't want to hear it." That was all O'Neill had to say on the subject.

"But I killed them, Sir. What if they were trying to help me when I started killing them and I didn't give them a chance?" asked Carter, not to be silenced.

"Get some sleep, Carter. That's an order." O'Neill said as he got up and headed out the door.

"Yes Sir," Was her only response. She knew when not to argue, but she was nowhere near done with this discussion.

"Sleep." He ordered her again.

"Yes, Sir." She had said, but try as she might, sleep did not come. She just lay there in the infirmary, alone with her thoughts. She had killed before: Goa'uld, Jaffa, hell, even humans. After all she was a soldier during the Gulf War. That was years before she took this intergalactic superhero gig. She knew what death looked like and what it felt like to take life. Why then was this time different?

She tried to remember how things had unfolded up to the point of the last attack. She had heard them coming towards her. She recalled that she had closed her eyes and summoned the will to operate the Goa'uld hand device.

She opened her eyes and although she was staring at walls of an empty hospital room, she could still see the terror radiating from the eyes of the Ozians. They had feared her. She hadn't noticed it at the time, but they had been terrified of her. She could still see their bright orange blood stains on her arms. Her hand could still feel the energy of the Goa'uld ribbon device that helped throw them to their deaths. Yes, she had killed before, but never like that. Were they Kad'nerb's followers? Had they come to harm her or help her escape?

"Do you want to talk about it?" Daniel's voice said quietly from the end of her bed.

She had not heard them come in. So lost in her thoughts and regrets that she didn't notice that they had all sat down. Her guys had come back, all of them. "We couldn't get the alien to talk. It just wanted to go back to Oz," explained Daniel.

"He let Frasier have the x-ray thingy, though. So you'll have something to play with when you get up and about," added O'Neill.

"You will be reintroduced to a standing position in no time Major Carter," said Teal'c from across the room. They all laughed, all but Sam.

"Back on her feet, Teal'c." O'Neill corrected. "She'll be back on her feet." Teal'c nodded, not understanding the difference in the two phrases, but content with O'Neill's correction.

"They're going to put me on the couch and try to shrink me before they clear me for active duty. That's if they ever do." said Sam. She pulled her knees up to her chest so Daniel would have more room to sit, and thought about how to tell them what she had just experienced.

"They will." said O'Neill flatly. "You'll get through this. Besides I hear Dr. McKenzie's got a new couch since the last time we visited." He expected her to laugh, his sorry attempts at sarcasm always made her smile. But a smile did not come. "Carter, look at me." She shifted to face him, looking defeated but still following orders. "You did what you had to do. You survived on that planet, a lot longer than you should have had to. Carter, you're still alive. Last time I checked that counted for something. O'Neill's voice got louder as he was reminded again of the time lost in her rescue.

"They're not alive," she lamented. "How many of them did I kill before you showed up? How many did you kill after you got me out? They could have been our allies if I had just tried harder to understand them. They could have—"

"Stop right there." O'Neill held his hand up in front of her face, holding up one finger. "First of all, it's we, not just you. Maybe we could have done more. Secondly," he held up another finger, "you had no reason to believe that they weren't going to kill you. We don't even know if the one we shot were the good guys or not."

"That's just it, Sir. We don't know, we'll never know." Now she wanted to tell them everything, about how Kad'nerb had spoke with her, about the struggle of his people, about the separation. With each word spoken, more guilt came. "What I did to them..." Her voice trailed off, and they could hear tears in her voice.

"… was self-preservation." O'Neill finished her sentence. He didn't like where this conversation was going.

They were still staring at her, trying to hear the silent conversation she was having in her head. O'Neill looked into her eyes, trying to read her thoughts, but got nothing from her. It was in that moment he realized, that before she was taken, he would have been able to read her. Before he could see into her soul, not all the way, but enough to know when something was wrong, enough to know whether to hold her, make her laugh, or leave her the hell alone. Now, however, she was completely closed to him. She had barred, locked and sealed herself off. More than anything else he had had to deal with over the past few days, this terrified him the most. They had rescued her body but how much damaged had been done to her soul.

"It was murder. I killed those creatures in cold blood. " Carter's voice faded into the air. "I set off the alarm. I knew they would come. I waited for them and I killed them."

"It was either the creatures or you, Major Carter." Teal'c said trying to help her see the logic of the situation.

"You don't know that. What if someone had gone in and killed innocent Jaffa because they were uninformed, Teal'c?" asked Carter. It was a low blow, she knew that, but if she could only make them understand.

"If I knew that if was not their intention to harm them and simply an act of uninformed negligence, I would not be grieved. You would not have harmed the Ozians if you had been aware of their good intentions or unless it was deemed necessary." Teal'c spoke more words than they were used to hearing from him. He was trying to help, they were all trying, but they didn't understand.

"Also, Sam," added Daniel, "Don't you think Kad'nerb would have told you if those creatures were of his people? If they were his people, they would have tried to communicate with you like he did."

"Maybe," Sam said, not accepting the possibility. "Or maybe he just didn't want me to know."

"Carter," Jack said beginning to lose patience. "You didn't kill the good guys. I did."

"But you did it because of me, Sir." said Carter, quietly. There was no way she was going to let him take all the blame.

"And I would do it again!" Yelled O'Neill as he slammed his hands down on the bedside table. He wanted her to be mad, to punch him, to cry hysterically, hell, to laugh in his face, anything but the blank stare that tortured him. O'Neill had had enough of those expressionless eyes and it was time for action.

"Daniel, Teal'c, give us a minute will ya?" asked O'Neill.

Daniel got off the bed and stood protectively between Jack and Sam. He knew Jack would never hurt her, but he felt better standing between them all the same. "Jack?" was all he said but it asked many questions. They held each other's gaze for a long while.

"I believe we should honor his request, DanielJackson," said Teal'c from the doorway. Daniel looked away from Jack and to Sam.

"I'm fine, Daniel." Sam said. Daniel gave one more threatening look to Jack before following Teal'c out.

"You have something you want to say to me, Sir?" she said with forced annoyance in her voice. She was putting up a good front, but she knew that Jack saw right through it.

O'Neill grabbed her legs and pulled her halfway off the bed so that she was facing him. He placed his hands on her shoulders to hold her in place. She looked up at him with anger in her eyes. "Ah, anger," thought Jack. "The best mask of them all. She learned that one from me."

"I probably should have had something profound to say to you before getting into this one-on-one talk," admitted Jack nervously. "So give me a second here."

He looked at the wall like the right words should be engraved on the concrete. The moment he looked away the shoulders beneath his hands began to shake. In truth, Jack knew that there was nothing he could say to make her feel better. She was right. They had killed them. He had killed them, but he had no way of knowing that their intentions were anything other than to attack them and take back Carter. And he wasn't about to let that happen even if he had to fight all of them single handedly until the whole planet was exterminated.

He looked back at Carter; the false anger was instantly gone from her eyes, replaced with more emotions than he could possibly read in a lifetime. They were alone now and she was letting down the walls she had built up since returning. He knew Carter trusted him with her life, but more importantly she trusted him to respect her: as a soldier, as his Second in Command, as a person, and as her friend.. She didn't have to hide anything from him, she never had.

Carter knew that he was still looking down at her while still holding onto her shoulders. She could tell that he had stopped looking for words. Words had never been needed between them anyways. They just got in the way. Her eyes said more to him than her voice ever could. She let her head fall against his chest and wrapped her good arm around his waist as she let her body be racked with sobs. Jack pulled her close. All the demons her eyes showed him were vanquished by his arms. "So maybe talking is not so important here," he whispered into her hair. She mumbled something back, but Jack figured it wasn't important enough to pull her away and make her repeat it.

00000000

Kad'nerb walked down the yellow path, away from the gate. Those people could not help, he thought. No one could. The others would continue to hunt, to hurt. He knew when he stepped through the gate that his part in his people's cause would come to an end. Still, he was intent on making that end meaningful. He would destroy the labs, he thought. He would destroy the display rooms. He would destroy it all.

Kad'nerb never heard them approach. He was lost in reflection thinking about his visit. He didn't see the others approach but he felt their presence focusing on his mind. His last independent thought was of the creatures he had just left behind. Maybe they could have helped him, their minds contained so much.

We are linked in many ways. With enough minds we can influence the behavior of another, even their death.

Kad'nerb was dragged the rest of the way to the caves. Another trophy for their collection.