Man, what a dream. My conscious mind isn't quite awake yet, but my subconscious mind is having a field day. I must have been drinking some heavy duty stuff while watching some late night weird movie. But why was Sam in it? Oh yeah, Sam was coming over. We were going on a family vacation, that's right. Was Sam here yet? I remember driving to the airport to pick her up, but I don't remember getting home. I remember getting as far as the parking lot and then... in a flash the last few events come crashing into my mind. I jerk my eyes open and sit up. I look around the cell... cell? Why did I call it a cell?
The room has one door and no windows. There are two cots, the one I'm sitting on and one on the other side of the room. I stand up and start walking around. Maybe I'll find something... yeah right... like I'd know what to look for. After a while, I have no way of knowing how long it really has been, I hear something outside. Footsteps coming this way. I back into the farthest corner as the door opens. Sam!
She is hanging limply between two guards before being roughly thrown inside. I hurry over to her side, kneel down and gently touch her shoulder. Anger flows through my veins when I see that she's been beaten. Bastards. I have no idea what to do. I haven't even had any first aid classes since the boy scouts.
I try to remember what they taught. Shock. She's probably going into shock. She needs to be kept warm. I look around the room for something, anything I can use. The cot. It's not much, but it's better than the cold floor. As I pick her up, I realize the collar is gone. Damn, that infuser is still on. At least it has that blue stuff in it instead of the red crap. The red stuff really did a number on her. After what seems like hours, she finally starts to stir. Her eyelids start to flutter and she moans quietly. When she finally gets her eyes all the way open she blankly stares at the wall. I talk to her but she doesn't talk back. I think that infuser is messing with her again. I just sit and hold her for awhile, trying to help and comfort her as best I can. Then I hear the guards coming to the door again. She hears them too and starts to panic, thrashing about with her arms and legs while trying to get away. I try to calm her down, but before I can do anything they come in and grab her. Then, I hear one of the most horrible sounds I have ever heard and never want to hear again. I hear my sister screaming.
This developed into a strange, horrible ritual. They would come for my sister. She would scream. She would stop screaming and they would bring her back and dump her in the room. I would hold her until she would wake up. Then they would come for her again. On the fourth or fifth trip, I discovered something wet on my hand when I picked her up. It was blood. I pulled up her shirt and looked at her back. Oh my God. Her back was covered in bloody welts. What did they do to her? Why? I wished for the millionth time that I knew what was going on. I sat there carefully holding Sam as I started drifting off, wondering if we would ever get out of this living nightmare.
The next time I awoke, I opened my eyes and saw the stone walls reaffirming the knowledge that my life was in Hell. And, once again, my sister was gone. I got up and stretched. I heard the guards coming back. Thinking they were returning my sister, I was surprised when they shoved two men into the room.
"Thank you very much." he shouted at the guards as they left. "Teal'c you okay?"
"I am fine O'Neill." O'Neill, Teal'c. Those were the names of the people who worked with Sam. I let my courage build up before I waved and got their attention.
"Mark, Mark Carter? Is that you?"
"Yeah. You work with my sister, right?"
"Yeah. You know there's a lot of people looking for you. You've been missing for four days now. We were starting to think the worse."
"Well they grabbed me when they grabbed Sam. I guess they didn't want me telling anybody what I knew, which is very little. What's going on here?"
"Tell me what you know and I'll tell you what we know. Hopefully we'll figure it out."
I quietly began my tale. "I was meeting Sam at the airport. We were walking out to my car when suddenly there was a flash of light. The next thing I know, I'm waking up is some weird room with some weird guy talking to us. When Sam woke up, she managed to open the door. I thought we escaped, but the guy was waiting for us. He had us walk through the forest to meet some friends, and someone must have bonked me over the head because next thing I know I'm waking up here. Sam was here, but they keep taking her away. They're hurting her, and I don't know how to help."
"I know they're hurting her Mark. But don't worry, we have a plan to get her out." Before O'Neill could tell me anything else the cell door was opened again. Someone was pushed through and it was a complete surprise to see that it was my father.
"Dad! What are you doing here?"
"Mark! I'm so glad you're safe." He came and gave me a great big bear hug.
"Jacob, did you see Sam?" He nodded but didn't let go of me. Was he crying? Dad didn't cry.
"Dad? Are you okay?" He nodded again but still didn't let go of me. "Then can you please tell me what the hell is going on here?"
"Osiris." I pulled back in shocked surprise. The voice came from the man that was holding onto me, but it was not his voice. He raised his head and his eyes glowed. "Mark Carter. It is an honor to finally meet you."
"Dad? What happened to you."
"Perhaps we should begin at the beginning." Dad pointed to the cots and after some work we pulled them closer together so we could sit down and talk. Then all three of them, or four as I would later find out, started telling me one of the strangest stories I've ever heard. Stargates, traveling to other planets, aliens that lived inside humans, saving the earth, the secret war that was being fought inside the mountain. They told me everything.
I was speculative at first, who wouldn't be. This was too much, it can't be real. But then dad told me about his first reaction to learning everything. I don't know why I still listened to them. Maybe I was bored, there wasn't anything else to do in the room anyway. Maybe I thought it was a joke, and Sam would be coming through the door yelling 'You're on Candid Camera.' Maybe in some part of my mind I believed them, it would explain some stuff. I sat there quietly thinking about this Stargate when we heard the guards coming. They opened the door and took dad away.
I sat in stunned silence for a time, thankfully the other two men knew I would need time to digest all this information and weren't talking to me. I wasn't sure if I believed them or not, but right now I really didn't care. I looked up and saw their faces watching me intently.
"Colonel, you said you had a plan for getting Sam out of here?"
"Yes, we do."
"How did you know where we were?"
"Basically Jacob got a video of Osiris hurting Sam. She told us the planet to come to, when to come, and warned us not to bring weapons or contact anybody. She said if we didn't do everything she said, something worse would happen to Sam."
"Sounds like a ransom demand."
"That's what is basically is." O'Neill was silent again as I buried my head in my hands, fighting back tears of desperation.
"Why now? Why does someone have to come and ruin our lives just when we get them back on track." I sit there for a minute before I look up to face O'Neill again. "I have a question. Why would she say to not tell anyone? Who could my dad possibly tell about this?"
"He could have informed the Tok'ra High Council." So Teal'c does speak English. I was beginning to wonder about that.
"What difference would that make?"
"The Tok'ra would never have authorized Jacob to come here."
"Did dad just get back?"
"Yeah, he got back to Earth right before you were kidnaped. Why?"
"I was just thinking about something the kidnapper said. He said something about following her for a while before getting a signal to take her."
"Guess we know why. This is one well thought out plan that's for sure."
"Speaking of plans, you said you had a plan to get her out of here?"
"Another team is coming through the Stargate soon. We figured the guards on the gate would be less after we came through and another team could secure it. If all goes according to plan they'll be able to waltz right on in here soon and get us out."
I nodded my head in understanding and sat back down to wait for dad. While we waited for them to bring him back, I asked O'Neill and Teal'c some more questions. We pretty much had everything sorted out except why we were here when they brought dad back. He looked terrible, nothing physical, more.. emotional. When did dad get so emotional?
"Jacob. You okay?"
"I saw Sam again. She doesn't look good."
"Any idea what Osiris is doing here?"
"A very good one Jack. In typical Goa'uld fashion she explained everything to me. Everything she has done to Sam. Everything she'll do to Sam. Everything." His voice broke as he was overcome by emotion.
"Jacob, I know this is hard for you, but we need to know as much as we can if we want to escape this place." Dad nodded and bowed his head. When he looked back up, it was as though he had put on a new face and I realized that Selmac must be in control. Man, that's a weird thought.
"Please forgive Jacob. It was not easy for him to watch his daughter being tortured." At the mention of torture everyone's face paled, including my own. I knew she was beaten, but didn't quite understand the extent of the beatings. It was O'Neill who found his voice first.
"Why?"
"For information." He was going to say more but was interrupted by the sound of the guards coming back. Opening the door, they threw in the limp form of my sister. We all ran forward as soon as they left. I watched as Teal'c gently picked her up and laid her on the cot. Then they began to tear their shirts into strips to make some bandages... why didn't I think about that. Finally they started to clean her up as much as they could. When they were finished we started talking again.
"What information did they want from her?"
"They don't want anything from her."
"What! Is this some sort of game for the sick bastard?"
"No Jack. This wasn't a game. They did this to her for information, but they don't want the information from her. She wants me to give her information on the Tok'ra."
"And she's using Sam against you. Psychological warfare."
"Right."
"Why?"
"Osiris is trying to win back the favor of the system lords. Destroying the Tok'ra is a pretty good way to get it."
"Great. Could this get any worse?" We sat in silence until Sam started to wake up. As soon as she was awake the guards came in and took her and dad away. This situation was hopeless. I laid back on the cot and closed my eyes, listening to the other two guys trying to come up with an contingency plan. Exhaustion soon overcame me and I fell asleep.