"IMPERIUM"

Previously, on Stargate: SG-1

For Summary, Disclaimer and all that other fun stuff, please see Chapter One. Yes, I really am that slack not to cut and paste it. Except for: this chapter has direct spoilers for "Seth" and again, "Gemini".

Thank you to all those who reviewed. Everyone is very sweet. I like this job.


"You have untapped greatness inside you, Sam. But you're limited by your own fears. You play by the rules, you do as you're told and you deny yourself your own desires."

"I have no desire to rule the galaxy, believe me."

"All humans desire power. It's just that most of them are never in a position to attain it."

The Repli-Carter and Carter, "Gemini"


"Receiving IDC, sir," announced the airman at the gate controls. "It's SG-1, right on time."

"Good," Jack said. "Open the iris."

It was still weird, he mused, that he was the one giving the order, instead of being on the other side of the gate. It didn't seem like it was something he'd ever get used to. The words had always sounded so fitting in General Hammond's mouth, but in his, they sounded… like an impostor. He vaguely wondered if the feeling would ever go away, as he watched his former team step through the shimmering blue wall and back to Earth.

"SG-1?" he inquired.

"We didn't manage to ascertain the cause of the Goa'uld decline, sir," Carter called up. "However, Daniel did manage to get a comprehensive record of the Goa'uld writing on the pillars, and we found some previously unknown Goa'uld technology."

"Good work, Colonel," he praised her. "Daniel, if you'd like you could…"

"Start translating the inscriptions?" butted in the archaeologist, already half way out the 'gate room as an airman relieved him off his pack.

"Yeah, that…" sighed Jack. "Carter, take the technology to the armoury, have it catalogued, and I'll have some people start looking over it. Teal'c… you… er, debriefing in one hour."

"Yes, sir," answered Carter. She removed the carbon box from the MALP and handed it to an airman.

A second airman tried to take her pack.

"Ah, no thanks, I'll take care of that myself, I'm going that way anyway," she ordered him, gesturing to the box.

"Whatever you say, ma'am," the airman complied, and went to work removing the MALP from the 'gate room.


After the debriefing, Sam finally had a chance to return to her lab, where she had stashed the double-ribbon device before the others studying the technology had had a chance to look at it. She carefully closed the door, to make sure there would be no unexpected entries, and pulled the glittering metal object from its hiding place.

As she gazed at its golden glow, she felt a feeling well up inside her that she had never felt before. It was almost… the closest thing she could akin it to was… lust, but it disappeared as quickly as it arose. Shaking slightly, she began to place the device on her fingers. First, the one that looked like a conventional ribbon device… and then she began to clamp the other part on her arm. The clamps snapped fast over her arm in a vice-like grip, and she felt a wave of pain roll through her body. Like her previous feeling, however, it quickly disappeared, and she felt better than she had ever had in her life.

Concentrating, she raised her hands to chest level, holding them shoulder width apart.

You have the will within you…you must summon it.

The words of Selmak came floating back to her, the first time she had really tried to use a ribbon device, the first time she had used it to kill someone… She remembered the feeling of forcing Seth's body backward with simply a thought…

You have the will within you…

The normal ribbon device glowed to life on her left hand. Concentrating harder, she forced the glow along the connecting cord and the device on her right hand came alive. Sam felt a surge of power rocket through her body and a huge, shimmering ball pooled between her outstretched hands. It continued to grow, and she let it, feeding it more power with her mind until it was bigger than her own body, relishing in the rush it gave her.

Too late, she realised; she hadn't had the practice to deal with it and she lost control. The ball of light flew from her hands, sending her flying five metres backwards where she hit he wall with a loud thump. It then exploded throughout the room, vaporising objects closest to the blast and tossing others to the floor. Such was the force of the explosion that it even managed to crack the reinforced concrete of the walls of the lab.

Under a pile of rubble from a broken shelf, Sam Carter lay unconscious.


A way away, in his own office, Jack was startled to feel a tremor rock through the building. Whatever it was, it had to be big to shake the foundations of the SGC, which was designed to withstand a hit from a thermonuclear weapon. He quickly hit the emergency button under his desk and the alarms around the base flew to life.

Leaping from behind the desk, he ran to the control room, expecting to see that the 'gate had fallen over or something similar, only to find several confused looking technicians.

"Wasn't us, sir," one of them said.

Jack frowned and reached for a microphone. "This is General O'Neill. Would anyone who has any idea what just caused the SGC to start a-rockin', please call the 'gate control room, as I am very interested in finding out."

He hung up; expecting an abashed nerd to soon be on the line telling him it had been a stupid experiment. After five minutes however, no one had called in an error.

"Oh, for crying out loud," he murmured, turning to leave the control room.

He swept down the corridors and into the elevator, frustrated at the sound of blaring alarms. Which he knew was rather silly, considering he'd pull them himself. He walked past a startled Daniel in his lab.

"What the…" began the younger man as the General swept by.

Jack was heading towards Sam's lab, intent on soliciting her help.

When he arrived however, all he found was her doorway half caved in and the foundations of her lab near-collapsed.

"Oh my…" said Daniel, coming up behind Jack. "What do you think she…"

Jack stepped into the room and found the trigger to stop the alarms. He also found the microphone to the base PA system, relatively undamaged. Well, undamaged enough for his purposes, anyway.

"Medical team to Colonel Carter's laboratory. Repeat, medical team to Colonel Carter's laboratory."

He stepped gingerly over the remains of the door and made his way to Sam's side.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Carter," he murmured to her prone form. "What on earth have you done with yourself this time?"

Bending over, he carefully removed a bit of the rubble that had fallen on to her knee, and easily hefted his subordinate into his arms. The medical team had, by this time, arrived at her lab, and he gently placed her on the gurney, which was quickly rushed off to the infirmary.


"What happened, General?" asked the doctor, after Sam had been treated and stabilised.

"I'm not sure," Jack mused quietly. "I think she was playing around with some Goa'uld technology."

"You mean that thing we took off her arm? Respectfully, sir, that took a hell of a lot of pulling to get off. You think that's what destroyed her office?"

"Yeah, I do think," Jack snapped back.

"Well that's a first…"spoke up Daniel, who had being hovering quietly in the background.

He was rewarded with a dry glare from Jack.

"What I want to know, however, Doctor, is what's the damage?" the General continued, trying to ignore the snickers of a few of the nursing staff.

"Well, for starters she'll have a bit of a concussion, so I'm confining her to base for at least three days. Her left knee probably got hardest hit, and she has some deep tissue bruising. The rest of her is fine, a bit battered, but mostly fine. She'll be up and about by tomorrow, but I don't think she should see any action for a week on that knee."

"Thank you, Doctor. I'll see to it that she doesn't go anywhere."

"Yes, General," the doctor replied, before walking off to attend to another patient, a member of SG-4, who had returned from a planet with what appeared to be a plant growing out of his left arm.

"Er… if you don't mind me asking, Jack," Daniel said again, serious this time, "How are you going to stop her from doing anything? It's just not Sam to sit idly around, even if she is injured. Short of restraining her…"

Jack's eyes gleamed thoughtfully.

"Which you cannot do," Daniel said quickly, "There isn't a lot you can do to make her keep off it. I mean, sure, you can stop her going through the 'gate, but…that's about it. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Sam hasn't ever really demonstrated that she knows the meaning of the words 'rest and relaxation'".

"Exactly what I was thinking, my dear Doctor Jackson," Jack said with a broad grin that frightened Daniel a lot more than the earlier glare had. "Which is exactly why you have been given the task of watching Sam."

"Since when?" Daniel said worriedly.

"Since…" Jack smiled and glanced at his watch. "Let's say… thirteen thirty seven hours."

"Why can't you? I mean, not that I'm not concerned about Sam, but I just don't think I can… handle her."

"I can't… because I have… um…" Jack stared around the room looking for an excuse. "General's… stuff! I have… paperwork. Keep her calm and let that knee heal, Daniel, and that's an order."


The next morning, Jack was relieved from his 'General's stuff' by a knock on his door.

"Come," he called, and the door opened to revealing a surprisingly refreshed and chipper looking Sam. Slightly too chipper, for someone who had single-handedly managed to destroy several tons of reinforced concrete the previous afternoon.

"Good morning, sir," she announced brightly. "How's your paperwork coming?"

"Carter…" he began, unnerved by her seemingly effortless recovery. It was as he was gathering his thoughts that a second idea hit him. "Where's Daniel?"

"Daniel, sir?" Sam asked, too innocently.

"Yes, Daniel. About yay high," he gestured with his hands, "Kind of shaggy, bespectacled, disposition of a Labrador? Supposed to be keeping you out of trouble?"

"With all due respect sir, I appreciate the concern, but I'm not over doing anything, it's just a bump on the knee."

"That still doesn't explain where Daniel is."

"I locked him in a closet on the sub-level nineteen," Sam replied, without the slightest hesitation.

"You what?" Jack asked, incredulous. This was not the Sam he knew, not at all. The Sam he knew would have sighed and kept about her business, while trying to ignore Daniel as much as possible, but she never would have outright got rid of him.

"Don't worry, sir, he's making a lot of noise, I'm sure someone has let him out by now."

Jack gaped.

"It's alright, the infirmary said I was remarkably fine, sir."

"I know," Jack said, recovering his sense of protocol and taking a calming sip of coffee. "However, no 'gate travel for a week, I'm afraid."

"That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about, sir," Sam said, a slight break appearing in her perfect façade.

"End of conversation, Carter, you are not going through this week. The galaxy can survive without you for a few days," Jack said, in his best 'General's voice', a tone he hoped would broker no argument.

"I understand that, sir," she said.

"You do?" Jack asked, surprised. "I mean… really?"

"Yes, sir," she answered. "However, I want to run something by you. I think I should carry a ribbon device with me when we go on missions."

Jack nearly choked.

"You want to what, Carter?"

"I want to carry a ribbon device with me through the 'gate. As a secondary weapon, sir."

Rather shocked, Jack glanced up at Sam, and for a second he felt like he didn't know her. She was staring perfectly calmly at him. He couldn't feel the regular vibe between them that he had always taken as standard; only a feeling of tangible confidence and strength was flowing from her now. This Sam he had never seen before, and he didn't understand it, nor did he like it.

"We'll… we'll have to discuss it with the rest of your team," he said lamely. "Get… get Daniel out of the closet. We'll have to ask SG-1."