Chapter 31- Slave Labor and Captured

"They were probably just instructed just to take Conner. Send us a message that Hanson's in control," Daniel said the next day as they walked in the direction the attackers came from.

"Sounds familiar," Sam said with bitterness in her voice.

"Which part?" Laura asked.

"He likes control," Sam said.

"Sounds too much like the Goa'ulds. The galaxy's a mess because they want control. Maybe we should be glad I don't have memories of my Goa'uld ancestors trying to be control freaks," Laura said, rolling her eyes with a small sigh.

"Can't argue with that. Well, what did you see in him?" Daniel asked, bringing the subject back to Hanson.

"I don't know. I guess I've always had a soft spot for the lunatic fringe. He was... he was charming," Sam said, trying to find a word for it.

"That's good. Charming is good, I think," Laura said.

"I don't know, kid. I should be more surprised by this than I am, but I'm not. You know, he had this in him, Daniel, Laura. Too many years of black ops," Sam said.

"Well, that's typical of our government's evaluation of soldiers. The crazier they are, the more extreme the situation they seem to be put into," Daniel said.

"He wasn't happy when I broke off the engagement, but he seemed like he'd really pulled himself together when we met up at Stargate Command," Sam said.

"Apparently not," Laura said as they all came to a halt when Teal'C, who was leading the way held up his hand to stop them. He made a motion for silence.

"What you got, Teal'C?" Jack asked.

"This way," Teal'C said, and they followed them to a small cliff overlooking people with wagons and a small community. Laura could faintly hear the sound of hammers pounding stone and saw men swinging axes.

"The road out of the valley, toward the mountain," Teal'C said, as he tossed Jack his binoculars. With Laura's sharp Goa'uld vision, she saw what Teal'C saw.

"Connor. He looks as if the sun is gonna do him in at any minute," Laura said.

"I'll be back in 30 minutes," Jack said as he put his sunglasses on.

"If you are thinking of rescuing Connor-" Teal'C started to say.

"Not yet. Captain, when the time comes, I'll need your help to get in the front door," Jack said to Sam.

"I'm prepared for that, Sir," Sam said resolutely and Jack got up.

"There will be none left to worship him if this continues," Teal'C said as they looked back at the workers. Some of them were already sporting impressive sunburns and more than a couple looked ready to drop.

"They're like Abraham," Daniel said. Teal'C and Sam turned to look at Daniel.

"Who was Abraham?" Teal'C asked.

"A biblical figure. Believed to be the father of man. God tested his faith by instructing him to make a great sacrifice: his son, Isaac," Daniel said.

"Did he sacrifice his son?" Teal'C asked.

"He gave it a good shot, before an angel stopped him at the last minute," Daniel said as a man collapsed under rocks.

"Get up!" A man with turban and Stargate Command clothes ordered sharply as he came over to the man who was being helped up by someone else. The one helping mouth moved, but he was so soft, Laura couldn't hear.

"Shut up!" The man in charge barked. "Do I have to make an example? Do I?!" His screaming getting louder with each word as he leaned over into the prone man's face. He raised his machine gun and started hitting the prone man with it.

"Hey, look over there," Sam said, raising her eyes from the binoculars. She got to her feet after giving Teal'C the binoculars.

"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?" Laura asked.

"I can't just stay here and watch him beat that man to death," Sam said.

"You will be captured," Teal'C said.

"Uh-huh," Sam agreed.

"And you think that's a plan?" Daniel asked.

"Daniel, I can get to Hanson. That's what the Colonel was talking about," Sam said.

"Well, can you at least wait until Dad gets back?" Laura asked.

"The man could be dead by then," Sam said as she stalked off.

"We should have stopped her," Daniel said.

"Stop her? Yeah, right," Laura said sarcastically.

"Indeed. We would have failed," Teal'C agreed.

Laura picked up the binoculars in time to see Sam hit the overseer. "Great," Laura said as Jack joined them.

"Connor looks bad. There's two guards, but- Daniel, Laura. Never mind," Jack said as he saw the natives and the overseer take Sam prisoner.

"Dad, she went down before we could stop her. It's probably our only way in without a fire fight anyway," Laura said as they marched Sam off to a cave.


They stood on the cliff, watching as the natives beat away at the rocks. "All right. We're gonna have to get one of them alone and talk to him," Jack said.

"How? They could give us away, Dad," Laura commented, the despair of the moment making her sound as logical as Spock.

"Indeed," Teal'C said.

"Maybe not. Maybe not. I think I've got just the candidate," Daniel said as he looked through the binoculars. Daniel went through the bush and they quickly came to a smallish man at a stream, drinking and bathing what looked like a sunburn on his arm. Daniel went to one side of him. When the man looked at him, he moved as if to get up and shrank as soon as he saw Jack on the other side of him. He moved to bolt and saw Teal'C and Laura behind him. Teal'C put his finger to his lips, making a shushing sound.