Chapter Three
Sam
Garan and I were standing at the gate making sure everyone got through safely when, during a lull in our work, Garan asked, "Sam, are you seeing anyone now?"
I looked at Garan for a moment before I found my voice, "Yes, I'm engaged or betrothed to a very nice man back at home.
"Not Jack?"
"Ah...what?"
"Not Jack?"
"No, why would you think that?"
"You appeared upset earlier when we where at my mother's house. While Jack and my mother where greeting each other, you would not look at them. I had interpreted that you and Jack may have been seeing each other."
I was not sure what to say to that because I had been in deep thought back at the house. I had been wondering why I was having such a hard time controlling the jealousy bug. The situation is still the same. Nothing has changed to make the man I...
"Colonel Carter." Teal'c called as he was walking forward with an elderly couple.
"Yes, Teal'c?" mentally thanking Teal'c for his timely interruption, for I did not have to answer Garan or myself.
"This is the last of the villagers and I have checked all of the buildings. There are nobody left in the village."
"Thank you Teal'c," she said then turned to Garan. "Please go with them and double check the head count."
"No problemo. Give me about five minutes."
Teal'c and I just looked at each other with smiles. The Jack O'Neill corruption, there is always a little here and there through out the galaxy.
"Colonel Carter, are you alright? When I was approaching the gate I noticed you seemed perplexed."
"Yes, Teal'c, I was just lost in thought. Something Garan had asked me. It had gotten me to thinking."
"Do you wish to elaborate?"
Sam looked at Teal'c for a moment, before finally deciding to answer. "I have been..." but she got no further when a voice came over the radio.
"Colonel Carter?"
"Go ahead Major Steins"
"We have a very agitated man here. There seems to be a little girl missing," replied Major Kevin Steins over the commotion in the background.
"Major Steins, please give the radio to Garan and have everyone calm down and be quiet so I can hear."
After a moments pause Garan voice was heard, "Sam?"
"Go ahead Garan and tell me the details."
"I need to come back and look for her!" his voice expressing the urgency of the situation.
"Garan! Calm down. Teal'c and I will look for her and send her to you. You're going to have to stay there. I need to know a few things first, like her name and wahte she is wearing?"
"Well, she may have gone to the ship. We've been having a hard time keeping her away from there. Her name is Tilly. She is six years old and wearing a light green tunic with an over dress of darker green. Please, find her! Please!" with a shaky voice. You can tell he had been trying hard to calm down.
"We will. Just stay there. Put Major Steins back on."
"Go ahead Colonel," replied Steins.
"We do not know if we will have hostels coming or not, but do a check every two hours. And contact SGC and let them know of our situation.
"Yes Ma'am!"
"Come on Teal'c, lets go see if we can track her," I said turning South and started walking.
"General O'Neill!" I spoke through the radio. No answer. "General O'Neill, please come in." Just static. 'He would have interrupted the earlier transmissions if he was in range. Especially if there was a child involved. It is either the naquada in the soil interfering or they're at the ship already.'
Daniel
Jack, Jacob and I were walking down to the ship from the rise above, when Jack stopped and turned around to look behind us.
"Jack, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Don't know. Just had a feeling of being watched. Let's hurry up." He moved to the entrance and walked in with Jacob and I right behind him.
There were no lights on but Jack apparently knew where to go. He went into the dark cargo bay while Jacob and I checked out the ship.
"Jacob, I can not get any power here." I said from the center console.
"Nor can I," said Jacob from the pilot seat.
Jack walked back in with a jeweled box about the size of a breadbox. It had one round crystal on each of the four sides and an indention on top for a fifth. Daniel moved closer to Jack to get a better look. "Wow! I can make out Ancient and Asgard markings on this side," as, I pointed to the sides nearest to me.
Jack set it down on the center console. I was still trying to look at the symbols when Jack reached into his pocket for what appeared to be an amulet. Jacob walked over to view the box and noticed Jack holding the amulet. "What is that?" he asked.
"This," as he held it out to place on top on the box, were the indention was, "is the key." Before he could get it into place a bright light appeared near the entrance.
'Oh great, what now?' I thought. When the light cleared away there stood five Jaffas and Baal. 'This is so not good.' Baal is the one Goa'uld that I was hoping to never see again. I remembered what he did to Jack and regretted not being able to help Jack at the time.
One of the Jaffas ordered them to move away from his Lord Baal's property.
Jack had made a quick decision and placed the amulet into the depression. The Jaffa that had spoken earlier noticed and fired his staff weapon at him. The force of the blast threw him back against the bulkhead.
"Jack!" I shouted as I ran to see if my friend was all right, while Jacob followed. We both knelt down to check Jack's condition.
Baal moved closer. "You fools...do you think you can destroy me with this pitiful device? It does not work. All it is capable of is a small light show."
True to Baal's words, the device started humming and the crystals began to glow, then beams shot out in all directions, wherever the beam hit organic matter it would scan it from top to bottom and back up again. Scanned each individual in the room. But one thing Baal did not expect when all of the beams started to vibrate and swung around to focus all their intensity on Jack. The smirk on Baal's face changed to one of total shock and disbelief. Especially when the beams started to produce an aura of blue light around Jack's body.
Jacob and I backed away from Jack and just stared in shock while Jack's body arched from the floor as if his torso was being pulled forward by a strong force. The light around Jack had gotten so bright that it became hard to look at it. Then it burst out into a sonic wave that knocked everyone to the ground.
The silence was deafening. No one moved but just stared at the spot where Jack used to be.
Unfortunately Baal was the first to regained his composure and ordered his Jaffa to take Daniel and Jacob to his ship.
Sam
"Colonel Carter, I have found tracks of a child. They appear to be heading in the general direction of the ship," said Teal'c while he was hunched over examining the soil.
"Great, let's go."
We both moved in the direction of the ship with quick strides. Well...all right, we ran.
As we came to a rise Teal'c threw out his arm to signal stop. We both knelt down. Teal'c pointed to the top of the rise. There, about a hundred yards up, was the girl lying on her stomach looking down the other side. Teal'c and I stood up and quietly approached her. We did not want to startle her before we could get close enough to talk to her. Before we could say or do anything to get her attention we heard a staff blast from the other side. It sounded muffled. We came up to where Tilly was lying and tried to see what was happening. Tilly turned as we came up beside her and she shushed us with her finger to her mouth. Teal'c and I just looked at each other raised both of our eyebrows in surprise, at this response. Tilly pointed her same finger to the ship.
Below, there it was, with debris and dirt half barring it. But that was not what caught the girl's eyes. At the entrance was a glow of blue light coming from inside the ship. Then wave of light and sound burst from the ship and radiated out from the ship. This cause all three of them to duck down from the intensity.
"Wow! That was an EM pulse," stated a bewildered Sam.
Teal'c had heard about EM pulses. You don't hang around me and not know about them.
"Check your staff and radio Teal'c," I said while I checked mine. No clicks. No static. No nothing. 'Dam. This is just great. I'm beginning to believe Jack about Mondays.' She sighed with a huff. 'What to do with Tilly? I know someone is hurt in there and needs our help.'
As I was debating about the situation when Tilly started to back down the hill. She had gotten about a yard away when I noticed her. "Tilly where are you going?" I whispered while trying to reach her.
"I am going further to the left. There is a path that is easier to get down from."
"I do not believe that would be wise," Teal'c countered.
"I am going. Are you coming?" as Tilly moved very quickly and agilely away.
"This is so not good," I mumbled while following the little girl.
Teal'c and I reluctantly followed as quickly as possible and worked our way to the spot Tilly was occupying. It was facing the entrance of the ship. There is also a good path just like Tilly had said.
"Tilly, please we need to get you through the gate to your family. Your mother would be worried," I pleaded.
"Colonel Carter! There is activity within the ship."
I reached for my monocular and peered at the ship. There was my father and Daniel emerging with several Jaffas and ...Baal! "Holy Hanna!" 'That must mean that Jack was the one hit by the staff blast.' As I chewed over that thought, I watched everyone move out of the ship. No one else exited the ship. 'But Baal would take Jack with him whether or not he was alive,' thought Sam.
Before she could make a decision, a bright light engulfed them. An Asgard beam had caught them and transported them right next to Daniel and Jacob.
Frustration was the norm for the day as I looked around at my dad and Daniel. "What happened?"
Daniel being the one with linguistic skills just stammered and rolled his shoulders up with splayed hands.
"Dad?"
"Ah...Ahhh..."
Before I could get any answers from them another transporter beam appear with five more Jaffas. One of them walked toward Baal and knelt in front of him and bowed his head. "My Lord Baal, we spotted these three," as he pointed to us, "on the ridge above. When we could not contact you we brought them to you and came down." The Jaffa kept his head down while waiting for his lord's reply.
"You have done well," Baal imperially stated and waved him away. He proceeded to walk up to his new captives giving them his superior than thou smirky grin. Then his eyes lowered to Tilly. "Who do we have here?"
I pulled Tilly more behind me as Baal came closer.
Baal smirked even more, if that is possible, when he witnessed the futile attempt of protecting the girl.
"Come forward. Let me look at you," stated Baal in his imperial voice.
"No! Leave her alone," yelled Daniel as he and Teal'c came around Jacob to help me. The newly arrived Jaffas stepped forward and trained their staff weapons at them.
Tilly placed her hand on my arm to get my attention. "Please, it is alright."
I looked down at her and saw that she was not afraid, but something else, I was not sure what. I let go of her and Tilly walked forward. Baal was taken aback by the child's lack of fear. He frowned and looked into her eyes. Those brown unyielding eyes. He seemed to realize something and his eyes glowed with the thought, but before he could react on this, a Jaffa came walking out of the ship carrying the device.
Not sure what had started it but the box started humming and the crystals began to glow. The Jaffa was so startled that he threw down the box and backed away. He was not the only one. Everyone decided to back up also, except Tilly. She just stood there watching it. No one really paid attention to her. When the beams came out to scan us, I asked, "What is happening?"
"I do not know," answered Daniel, "but it did the same thing earlier when Jack disappeared."
"What do you mean disappeared?" I glared at him.
While I was trying to get an answer from dad and Daniel the beams started to vibrate and swung around to Tilly. She became a bright glow, "just like Jack," Daniel mumbled ruefully.
The glow became so bright that everybody started to shield his or her eyes. Then there came the blast of an EM pulse. Everyone was thrown to the ground. We just stared at the spot where the little girl had been standing.
"Just like that," sighed Daniel.
TBC
Disclaimer: "Satrgate SG-1" and its characters are the property of MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp., Showtime/Viacom and USA Networks, Inc. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author(s), and may not be republished or archived elsewhere without the author's permission.