The thoughts scrolled quickly through his mind, but before they had even finished Jack was calling on all of his training to defend himself from the Goa'uld who was attacking him.

He twisted swiftly so that he was lying on his back, bent his knee and kicked out at Shesmu, sending the alien flying across the room. That gave him enough time to get to his feet – or almost, as the Gao'uld recovered incredibly quickly and threw himself at Jack.

The two tumbled together on the hard floor, rolling and each trying to get the upper hand. Jack knew that the Goa'uld were much stronger, physically, that humans so he had to rely on all his training and his ability to think fast.

The one thing he had going for him was that he doubted Shesmu had had to do much hand-to-hand fighting during his life. He relied on his Jaffa to do the heavy work and sat around accepting their devotion and worship.

Still – the man/alien was strong. Shesmu was attempting to get his hands – or arm - around Jack's neck, which he knew would be very, very bad. It wouldn't take much for old snake-eyes to strangle him or break his neck.

He managed, once again, to push the alien away – although Shesmu didn't go far. But it did give Jack enough room to play dirty. He felt a brief moment of sympathy for the human host, but then lashed out with his foot – encased in heavy combat boots – and hit Shesmu right in the jewels.

The other man – or alien rather – gasped and fell back, flat on his ass. His eyes flashed, signifying either anger or pain – or perhaps both. Jack knew he'd better finish this guy off quickly.

He again launched himself at the Goa'uld, knocking Shesmu back, flat. This time it was Jack who went for the neck. Moving as quickly as he could he managed to grab the alien's face in one hand and reached around to the back of his head with the other.

He felt a sharp pain in his side as Shesmu began to pummel his ribs but he refused to let it dislodge his grip on the alien. When that tactic clearly didn't work, Shesmu stopped on the ribs and tried to grab Jack's arms and pull them away from his face and head.

This was it, the Colonel knew. He didn't have the strength to hold out against the Goa'uld for much longer, so using everything he had in him, he twisted his arms.

There was a loud "crack" and Shesmu's eyes – which were looking straight into his own – flared briefly and then slowly faded out. A moment later Jack felt the Goa'uld go limp in his arms.

He could feel his body start to relax slightly, although he was almost sobbing for breath and trying to ignore the pain in his side. Suddenly he had a realization – and threw Shesmu away from him and scrambled back as quickly as he could.

And it was just in time – for the Goa'uld slivered out from behind Shesmu (realized somewhere in his brain that it was actually the snake who was Shesmu). The Goa'uld reared up and screeched – and immediately spied Jack sitting a few feet away -

- although sitting wasn't exactly what Jack was trying to do. During his fight with the Goa'uld he hadn't had the time or opportunity to grab – let alone shoot, his zat. At some point it had fallen out of his waistband. Now he looked around, desperately trying to find it. There was no way in hell he was about to become Goa'uld'ed – not again.

With a wild screech Shesmu launched itself towards Jack – practically flying through the air – it's hideous jaws gaping widely. At the same time Jack rolled frantically, trying to get out of the path of the vicious snake-like alien. His hand scrabbled around, trying to find his zat.

He screamed when he felt the snake hit him in the back and slither rapidly up towards his neck. There was a sharp pain, and he frantically grabbed at the thrashing tail of the Goa'uld, holding it with all his strength. At practically the same moment his eyes spied his zat, lying half-way concealed under the sole desk in the room. He inched towards it, still holding on while the snake attempted to burrow into his neck.

The pain was fierce and tears sprung to his eyes – although they were as much from fear and horror as from the feeling of razor sharp teeth trying to slash into his neck.

He finally got to the desk – and although the journey had probably only taken seconds, it had felt like forever. Now he was faced with the quandary of letting go with one hand to grasp the zat – giving the snake the opportunity to make it inside of him. But he knew he had no choice. He couldn't hold on forever. Even now his hands were starting to shake and sweat and he could feel them slip a few millimeters every few seconds.

"Okay you bastard," he choked out. He yanked as hard as he could – pulling the Goa'uld back a tiny bit. Then, with a quick breath he let go of his left hand and grabbed for his weapon. He could feel the snake surge forward, getting a bigger bite of his neck.

Jack turned on his side and frantically tried to point the zat at the creature's body. It was difficult and he knew if he missed that would be it. With a tiny prayer he let completely go of the snake and shot his zat at the same time.

The electric pulse went through Jack's body – knocking him back and briefly stunning him. He had no idea, for a few seconds, whether or not he'd managed to hit Shesmu. It was only as his eyesight cleared and he could breath again did he realized that he no longer felt the Goa'uld at his neck.

He looked around feverishly – attempting to see the snake. "There you are!" The Goa'uld was lying, stunned, on the floor next to Jack. It had clearly received the majority of the blast, but even now was waking up.

Jack didn't even think – he aimed the zat again and shot it once, twice – and the snake disappeared. He continued to shoot three more times – even after the Goa'uld was long gone. His breath came in gasps and sobs and he was shaking wildly. His side hurt – but not nearly as badly as did his neck, which burned fiercely.

There were few things in this world, which terrified Jack O'Neill – but becoming a host to a Goa'uld was one of them. He had had many nightmares after the incident with Hathor – but they had only finally stopped only to be replaced by his later experience with Kanaan and Ba'al.

"Damn, bastard, blood sucking snakes!" he croaked. He glanced down at his hand, which still clutched the zat. It was shaking wildly and he grimaced and laid down the weapon. The last thing he needed to do was to shoot himself!

He slowly, stiffly straightened up. He was too wobbly to stand, so instead he pushed himself back until he was leaning against the wall. As he moved he glanced down to see smears of blood following him.

"Damn!" He knew he had to check and find out what the damage was, although he was still too creeped out to even want to feel his neck.

"Come on Colonel," he told himself. "Don't be a wuss." Still very shaky, he lifted his hand and carefully felt his neck in back. It was slick with blood.

"Ow!" he cried, when his hand came in contact with an open, bloody gash. "Shit!" He knew he'd better get it bandaged soon. He had no idea how serious it was but he was losing blood, which was never a good thing.

Jack finally managed to push himself to his feet, although he had to continue to grasp the wall to keep from doing a face-plant. He continued on until he reached the door and stopped and took a deep breath.

He had to find a first aid kit and then get back to the ship. Poor Burke was probably wondering what the hell was going on. If anything happened to Jack the man would be trapped floating around Earth with no idea how to contact anyone.

Jack staggered through the door and tried to figure out where he could find the necessary supplies. It was only as he walked down the hallway – one hand firmly planted against the wall, the other trying to stem the blood on his neck, that it dawned on him that someone might show up any minute. There could be others who hadn't been at the farmhouse when he and Burke had arrived.

"You'd better get a move on, O'Neill," he muttered to himself. It was a couple of tense minutes later when he found the bathroom and a small first aid kit. Deciding it was more important to get out of here then to spend the time fixing himself up, he grabbed the kit and headed back towards the ring room.

He staggered slightly as he walked, but he was finding it a bit better. His heart had stopped racing and he was beginning to catch his breath. He could still feel blood dripping down his neck, but he didn't think it was too bad. Hopefully Burke could fix him up and he'd be good to go.

"Damn snakes!" he swore as he reached the ring room. He wasn't quite sure if he was talking about the Goa'uld or about the humans who had caused this whole thing.

He managed to get to the right spot and hit the controls. It was as the rings were surrounding him that he heard a shout. He saw someone run into the room but a second later he was gone. Talk about in the knick of time!

He arrived back on the dearly departed Shesmu's ship but collapsed as soon as the rings deposited him there. He sat quietly for a moment, feeling slightly dizzy. It was only when the door opened that he looked up.

"Jack, what took you so long? I thought you'd decided to – what the hell?" Burke suddenly noticed the blood on Jack's hand and then on his collar. He rushed forward and knelt beside the Colonel. "What happened?"

"Damn snake tried to – snake me!"

"Snake you?"

"Yeah – I told you – they're parasites. When I got there Shesmu had escaped and attacked me. I ended up having to break his neck." Jack grimaced slightly. "Uh – I guess it was the host's neck – which I feel bad about but I had no choice. After he died the snake – the Goa'uld –left his body and decided to find a new home."

"Which I assume was you?" Burke asked as he carefully peeled Jack's shirt away from his neck. He winced when he saw the damage.

"Yeah. We disagreed about that though and eventually I managed to get rid of him, but not before he took a bite out of me."

"Looks like more than a bite," Burke told him. "Looks like he was trying to feast on you. It looks pretty torn up, but I don't think it's too deep."

"Here," Jack finally remembered he was holding a first aid kit and he gave it to the CIA agent. "See if you can fix me up."

"Okay, although I think you might need a few stitches – and some antibiotics." Burke began trying to clean up the blood and bandage O'Neill's neck.

"The snakes have something in their spit which keeps infections down," Jack told him. "OW!" he pulled his head away sharply. "What are you doing?"

"Hold still you baby," Burke told him. "I'm just putting some ointment on this and then I'm going to bandage it up. You need to see a doctor."

"Yeah – when we're done here I will. Okay – enough!" he growled. "Just slap a bandage on it and let's go. Hey – where are Hubbard and Caine?"

"Don't worry – I have them secured. Okay there," Burke sat back and looked at his friend closely. "Hey, did he hurt you anywhere else?"

"Just bruised ribs," Jack told him. "Here help me up." A moment later the two men were standing. "Okay, let's get this show on the road. I'm tired of all of this and want to go and see my wife!"

The two men walked back to the bridge of the ship. When Jack got there he chuckled when he saw the two men who had brought him such pain. They were trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys."

"You really didn't want them to get loose, did you?" O'Neill asked. "You don't think you've gone a bit overboard?"

"Hey- who was the person that just got attacked by the Goa'uld who got loose? If you'd done the same to that guy you might not have a big hole in your neck!"

"Point taken," Jack said. He walked towards the two trussed up men. He had to move slowly and keep his neck stiff if he didn't want it to start bleeding again. It really was a pain in the neck! "I regret to inform you that your co-conspirator Shesmu is no more. He tried to kill me and I had to zat him. The good news is that the ship is now mine."

"What are you going to do with us?" Hubbard asked. He no longer sounded belligerent – just tired and afraid.

"I'm going to drop you off somewhere where there's no gate. You and the General here can spend some time thinking about your sins."

"You're going to leave us there?" Caine sputtered.

O'Neill shrugged, and then winced. He had to remember not to do that. "I don't know. I guess it will depend on the President. Now – enough talking." He turned slowly towards Burke.

"Watch them. I'm going to fly this baby to a likely planet and drop these guys off. Then we can go speak to Mr. President."

Burke watched as O'Neill made his way to the pilot's seat – at least that's what he decided to call it. He was worried about his friend, although Jack had been through worse and had survived. With a sigh he turned back to his prisoners.

Jack thought for a moment and then put the coordinates into the ship's consul. In less than 10 minutes they were on their way.

He sat back and let out a long sigh. His neck was burning, his side throbbing and all he could think about was Sam. He wondered how she was doing. Was she okay? Was the baby okay? Hell, he should be with her, not here in some Goa'uld ship carting around a couple of evil megalomaniacs.

Why couldn't he ever just have a normal, happy life? He thought longingly of his home on Thassos. Hell, he even missed the sheep.

"Okay, we're here," he announced almost an hour later. "We'll drop these two off and then head back," he told Burke.

"You're just going to leave us here? How are we going to survive?"

Jack grinned, although right now that's the last thing he felt like doing. He stood up slowly and walked over to the two prisoners. He felt like death, but there was no way he was going to let them know that. "You think I'm worried about that?" he asked them. "In fact, it would make it a lot easier for everyone if you didn't."

"You're a bastard, O'Neill!" Hubbard told him.

Jack chuckled. "That's funny, coming from you Colonel. Now stand up and let's get going."

A few minutes later the two men – carefully guarded by both Burke and Jack – were standing on the ring pad. They were no longer bound, but they both looked angry – angry and terrified.

"Bye, bye," Jack waved as he hit the controls.

"I'll get you -" Hubbard's words stopped as they disappeared from the ship.

"So how are they going to survive?" Burke asked casually.

Jack glanced at him and then headed – even more slowly – back to the pilot's seat. "The planet isn't deserted. In fact, there are friends of mine there. I contacted them and they're going to be waiting. They'll keep them locked up until we get back."

"Friends? They're willing to do this for you?"

"Mmm hmm. I saved the Chief's son and he wants to do something to pay me back. So when I asked him if he could keep a couple of prisoners he jumped at the chance."

And you sure they won't be able to escape?"

"The people on that planet – the Toruni – are a tough race. But even if they do escape, where will they go? There isn't a gate there and the people don't have space ships. No, they'll be fine."

"What about you?" Burke asked softly. "Jack, you look like you're ready to collapse."

Jack gave a small lop-sided grin. "Well, I must admit I could use a good nap. Let's get back to Earth and then I'll rest. And after that – I have a phone call to make!"