As Carter walked down the hallway alone a shiver ran up her spine. She felt as if though the eyes of the people who used to leave at her were always on her back, watching. She knew that was ridiculous, but couldn't help herself. She had been profoundly disturbed after being inundated with Jolinar's memories. It had been difficult to retain her personal identity while amidst those memories from thousands of years.

She didn't like being out of the loop, having no idea how successful Daniel and Jack were. But she knew that if they encountered a problem, they'd come up with some ingenious solution. They'd be cautious, and not just do the first thing that came to mind. These thoughts took away some of the tension, but she was still alone and in a strange place.

She saw odd paintings and murals all around her, on the floors and on the walls. At some places there were even scenes depicted on tapestries covering other scenes on the walls. Some of them were beautiful, picturesque scenes, some of them horrific battles with gore all over. It didn't mean much to her though. She could deal with theorems and facts any day of the week, but these things were just way too oblique for her. Daniel was the sort to make these loose connections.

She came to a room that had doors all around. She counted a total of twelve doors. She was turning around and looking at them all when she heard noises coming from some of them. Not just some of them she thought, all of them. And they were getting closer. She raised her gun down one of them and saw a savage with blood red eyes, a cruel barbed spear and animal teeth necklaces and bracelets covering his body. He came from around a corner and ran towards her. He was about to throw his spear when Sam opened fire, only to see another one jump over his corpse from behind. They were pouring in from all sides, even the way she had come.

Carter tried to stop them all, but it was impossible. She opened fire on one, turned and took down another, but others from all the places she hadn't hit came closer. And closer. One of them hurled into Sam and sent her rifle flying. They now circled around her and began chanting something.

"Atum! Atum! Atum! Atum!" They bellowed in unison. So, it would appear he had managed to convert some of the locals after all. Just great. She stole a quick glance at her watch, but saw that she had another eight minutes before she could travel back in time. She withdrew her combat knife and looked longingly at the gun that was beyond her reach, past the circle of berserker fighters. One of the warriors jumped from the circle and lunged at her. It had been a long time since basic combat training. A very long time.

Nevertheless, she grabbed the spear shaft as it darted towards her neck and pushed it upwards as she rolled into her attacker. She planted the knife in his ribs and seized his spear from his dead hands. She attempted to throw it against one of the people in the ring, but it cluttered uselessly against a hide shield.

They were not happy that she had slain their comrade, and they were closing the circle. Their spears were only inches away, and she could be stabbed and slain from a dozen different directions at once. She turned to try and defend all directions, but it was useless. They were toying with her. No matter which way she turned, the ones at her back would cut her with small slashes.

When Sam first felt her skin being ripped apart she turned around instantly, only to have someone behind her open up a second wound. She had to break from the circle or they would slowly bleed her to death with a thousand cuts. She waiting for a gap, sustaining more slices every second, but finally saw her chance. She lunged between two spear points and pushed them apart. She gave one of the two warriors a sharp elbow to the face and the other a knife to the abdomen. She tried to take a few more steps to recover her firearm, but the enemies reacted quickly.

She gasped in pain and looked down to see a spear point coming out of her thigh, having pierced it from the other side. It caused her to fall, but she managed to go into a roll to cover the distance to her P90. She grabbed it and whirled around. Now that the enemy were in a cluster, they fell prey to modern technology with horrifying speed. One down. Another. Bang. Death. Time seemed to slow for her. Bang...bang...bang... Another life extinguished. Although time crawled, it was over in an instant.

Sam cringed. Not at the thousand jagged pangs of fire cut into her back, or her torn and useless left leg. She cringed at the pile of around thirty bodies she had created on the floor in front of her. The last few had almost stopped her when she had to reload, but they were soon mowed down a few paces in front of the others. She was a scientist, not a soldier. She had not joined the Air Force to murder people. Shooting enemies blasting her with staff weapons was one thing, and she could handle blowing up alien motherships, but mowing down savages armed with spears was something entirely different. These people were living, breathing human beings. They probably didn't attack her of their own will. Atum had forced them. She should've tried to negociate. She should've made a break for it at first sign of trouble. She should've, she should've, she should've...

"I'm useless." she thought. If Jack had been here he would've been able to handle this situation. She was foolish for thinking she could be the one to go off alone. She just wasn't cut out for command. She relected on the lifeless bodies all around her.Taking a deep breath, shelet the soldier conditioning handle it. They were hostile. It had to be done. It was not murder. The words sounded very hollow indeed when dozens of lifeless corpses were bearing silent testament to what she had done. But there was no changing what she had done. Best to just move on, if she sat here more could come and attack.

She breathed in.

And out.

She resolved to get up and continue exploring, but realized she had forgotten something very important. Her leg. She couldn't move, she'd just have to sit around in this room. She was not having a very good day, this mission was a disaster and she just wanted it to end. In fact, her whole career working at the SGC was a series of disasters that through only a series of wild improbabilities and last minute breakthroughs had not yet resulted in the Earth's destruction. All they had managed to do was create more enemies. No matter what they did, they were only upping the ante. They stop two Goa'uld ships and they send two more. Stop those and they send bigger, more powerful ships. The problem was that they had a siege mentallity.All they did was defend, defend and defend. If they were ever going to win this war they had to go on the offensive more. It was high time they wipe out the Goa'uld. As her experience just showed her, sometimes it's you or them and you make your choice. The enemy seemed insurmountable, but maybe, just maybe, the answer lay on the next world they would visit. Sam knew she couldn't afford to give up till she visited that next world and found the answers needed. Billions depended on it.

She had three more long minutes to feel the accusatory stares of the dead before she used the device to return to the others by going back in time. You never know, maybe the answer to all their problems was somewheres on this planet.

A note - I changed this chapter a bit because someone thought Sam was out of character.While I do not agree, I still changed it to make her conform more to what they would probably think to be more normal Sam behavior. I wouldagree that the original version of this chapter was a bit out of place.