Chapter Two

Night had fallen but Jack wasn't going to get any rest this night. The nights were nearly twice as long as the days here, or at least they felt that way. The dark hours belonged to a creature that Jack had never seen, but was intimately familiar with. He could hear them now, snarling and fighting over the carcass of the horse creature that had died earlier that day. When the animal had been alive the beasts had respected its sharp claw like hooves and had stayed clear. Now that it was dead they were feasting. What angered Jack the most was the fact that the horse's blood wasn't the only that they'd tasted here. Listening to the beasts feeding Jack's tired mind wandered back to their first days in captivity. In the beginning their situation had been more irritating than anything else. Closing his eyes Jack relived the scene in a fitful state between sleep and delirium.

"This is getting old."

"Don't worry, Sir. I'm sure Teal'c and Daniel will be here soon with another SG team."

Jack turned away from where he'd been pacing back and forth at the bars. Sam was sitting cross legged with her back against the stone wall. She was looking out of the bars with interests as the creatures on the other side did the exact same thing to her. The spectators were basically humanoid in shape although their legs looked like they were standing up on elongated tip toes. They had a reptilian look to their faces, noseless faces with a smooth muzzle, their large eyes had slited pupils and no whites showing, and smooth scales covering their skin.

They sort of reminded Jack of Unas, although these creatures were much more graceful and lithe. Their hands were delicate, unlike the chunky hands of the Unas. Sam was the first to notice that they had thumbs on both sides of their hands which she guessed gave them amazing dexterity. They wore clothing made of real cloth and not just animal hides, and as far as Jack and Sam could tell they had a very complicated language.

"I wish Daniel was here." Jack said sourly.

"I don't think this is any language he would know. Although he could probably learn it."

"No, Carter, I just wish he'd come here so that we could get out of this."

"They don't seem to mean us any harm."

"Putting us on display constitutes as 'harm' in my book, Carter. This place reeks."

"Most zoos do to some extent. The thing I don't understand is that I could have sworn the people who first caught us had thick fur coats. I haven't seen anything that looks like the original species we were dealing with."

"What do you suppose that means?"

"I don't know. I'm just fascinated by the fact that we seem to have found another truly non human intelligent race. We don't come across that very often."

"Yeah...thrilling."

Three weeks later Sam wasn't as interested in the scientific discovery of their captors. They had come to learn that they weren't exactly in a zoo as Sam had first guested. It was more of a side show and the quality of care was becoming less humane by the day. They had already seen several animals in near by cages driven to madness by the constant taunting of the guests who came during the later hours of the day. Others had simply laid down and allow themselves to die from the despair of captivity.

Another week went by and Jack finally stopped his pointless daily pacing. His temple held a nasty gash from where one of the natives had hit him with a rock that it had flung through the bars. During the early hours of the day the reptilian aliens that went by seemed to be decent enough, some even shook their heads sadly as they walked by. However, usually after the mid day rains finished falling, the patrons changed to a nastier group.

They reminded Jack of certain teenagers he'd known in high school. They jeered and pestered any animal they could get a reaction from. As time went by these were the only aliens they'd see, no one seemed to come in the early hours any more. Sam had guessed out loud that perhaps their novelty had worn off. Jack leaned his shoulder against the bars and stared at the scaly horse as it stretched its neck as far as it could to get to the remaining grass.

"Carter, is it my imagination or is this place going down hill?"

"They have been feeding us less."

"It's more than just that, the whole place is falling into disrepair. Not that it was exactly high class to begin with. Where the hell is the SGC?"

"I don't think they know where we are." Sam admitted.

"Then they need to try looking a little harder."

"That's not what I meant, Sir. I...uh...I don't think we're on the same planet."

"What?"

"I've been watching the sky at night. There's only one moon."

"How many should their be?"

"Three."

"Maybe we just can't see the others, maybe they are dark."

"I thought of that, which is why I've been memorizing the stars to see if anything blocks them out on different nights."

"And?"

"Nothing. The chances that a planet is being circled by three moons and only one of them shows up in a month long period of time is...well let's just say it is much more likely that we have been taken to another world. We could be anywhere."

"Then we are just going to have to get out of here ourselves."

"I'm open to suggestions."

Jack paused at the hopelessness in Sam's voice. She had been trying so hard to make a connection with one of the aliens that worked here to try and convince them that they were intelligent and should be set free. However, it had been a few days since they'd seen that particular employee.

There was no chance at forceful escape because the door to their cage was never opened. Food and water was simply changed through the bars. Every once in a while they were also hit with some sort of pressure washer, but that was the extent of their husbandry. They had both lost enough weight to where they had to modify their belts to keep their clothing hanging on their hips.

Walking over and sitting next to Sam Jack reached out and put his arm around her shoulders. Sam leaned against him and sighed heavily. Jack rested his chin on top of her head as she nestled against his neck. Although she was doing everything to fight it he could feel her tears against his skin. Jack closed his eyes against his own brightened eyes before taking a deep breath and forcing a smile, even though she couldn't see it.

"It's going to be okay, Carter. We've gotten out of worse...right?"

"Right."

Sam had not been very convinced. Another week passed and they were no closer to freedom. Almost no one came to view them or the others anymore or even to throw things at them. They had been reduced to eating some sort of thick slurry every few days. The grass around their elevated stone slab enclosure was starting to grow out of control since no one bothered to cut it any more. Jack was starting to pray that the place would go out of business in hopes that they would just open the cages and 'return them to the wild' when it did.

It was late at night nearly a month and a half into the ordeal when things went from worse to disastrous. Sam was sleeping near the bars while Jack was using a shard of glass from a bottle that had been thrown at them to try and pick open the lock for the thousandth time. Sam suddenly screamed so loud that every animal in the place went into a panic.

Dropping the best glass lock pick he had Jack rushed over to her. It was a moonless night but he could make out some shadows. Sam was kicking violently at the bars with one foot. Jack fell to his knees at her side as she contorted her back and cried out in anguish again. At first he'd been afraid that she was simply loosing it.

"Cart..."

"Something has my leg!" Sam panted in pain.

Jack ran his hands down Sam's body to her pinned leg. His hands came in contact with a broad muzzle that was dripping with saliva. The creature could barely fit his face through the bars, however he had his teeth firmly sunk into Sam's calf and was trying to pull his prize through the bars. Jack tried to pry the animal's jaws open but quickly realized that wasn't going to work.

Reaching out of the bars Jack sought out the beasts eyes and pressed his thumbs into them. The animal squealed in pain and released his captive. The cry had brought the attention of others and soon Jack could see six sets of eyes, glowing green from some reflected light, outside the cage. Jack dragged Sam to the center of their prison to protect her from further attack.

"Carter?"

"It's broken."

"What?"

"The bone, I heard it snap. Plea..." Sam stopped and wailed in pain. "Please set it quickly."

Jack nodded and once again dragged his hands down her length to the injury. He kept contact with her so that she'd know exactly where he was and what he was doing. Jack dug his fingers into holes made in the fabric of her pant leg by the animal and ripped it all the way open from her knee down.

"The good news is: it's not broken."

"Bad news?"

"The snap you heard was a tooth breaking off, and it's embedded in the bone."

"Great. Yank it out...I'll make a necklace out of it."

"That's the spirit."

Making sure he had a tight hold on the large slender tooth Jack tried to pull it out. In the end he had to work it back and forth to remove it. Sam arched her back and cried out to the point where her voice cracked. Jack put the tooth down and tore a strip out of Sam's already tattered pant leg. He wrapped the bite mark carefully to stem the bleeding.

Sam started shivering uncontrollably and Jack feared she was going into some sort of shock. What he didn't realize at the time, but they both later guessed, was that the animal was slightly venomous. He brought his hand up to her face and discovered her skin was cold to the touch. Jack gathered her up in his arms and held her closely to try and warm her.

"Deep breaths, Carter."

Sam nodded against his chest and started forcing herself to breath through the wracking pains brought on by the attack. Jack lifted the collar of the back of her shirt and bowed his head so that he could breath warm air down her back. Sam pressed against him harder before finally relaxing completely. She didn't wake for three days.

Jack guessed that the attack had been about to weeks ago. When their captors had come by the next morning he had begged them to help her. They showed no interest in her wounds and three days later they were gone. The owners of the seedy side show didn't bother to open the cages or even slaughter their exhibits. They simply moved on and left their prisoners behind. Now the deep puncture wounds in Sam's leg burned with an infection that had spread into her blood, threatening to kill her before the starvation could.

Back in the present Jack listened to the ravenous scavengers tearing apart the rotting scaled horse. His stomach growled angrily in envy. Jack knew that there would be no chance at food tonight. The 'reverse rats' that normally visited them wouldn't be coming tonight, they wouldn't be brave enough with the large predators so near by. The small animals looked much like rats that had skin on their bodies, but furry tails. Like someone had taken a squirrel by the tail and dipped it in Nair.

Once the place had been shut down death had attracted the rats. The ugly pests came to gnaw on them at night while they slept. They were a nuisance and a blessing all at once. Whenever Jack was quick enough the creatures made a good meal. Although the more he succumb to starvation himself the harder it was getting to catch them. It had been several days since he'd had any success hunting.

Somewhere out in the dark one of the larger animals bellowed and crashed to the ground. Jack's heart jumped painfully at the loss of another soul. He had started to take the deaths around him personally. No matter what the animal's intelligence was he shared a common ground and pain with all of them. They had all been sentenced to a cruel punishment without ever committing a crime.

Jack leaned his head back on the stone wall. The continued sounds of the pack of scavengers tearing at flesh was driving him closer to madness. Sam was still sleeping fitfully, curled up on his lap. He pulled out her dog tag necklace and stared at the bright white tooth that now also hung from it. The fact that she had taken the time to make a necklace out of it made him smile for a moment. However that smile faded as she coughed, a wet, sickly sound. Sam's every breath was rasping, but she seemed to be actively refusing to give in to death. She couldn't continue like this forever though, or even for much longer.

The only comforting thought Jack had at the moment was that she wasn't going to have to be the one to die alone. He'd been so angry at himself in the Antarctic when it looked like he was going to have to leave her to face whatever fate had in store for her on her own. Although he had never given up hope for her then, after all the Stargate was right there, she'd find a way, she had just needed more time than he'd had to offer.

In the space between two painful breaths Jack finally lost what little hope he had left. Even if rescue came that instant he didn't think anything could be done for her. Sam was so close to death that he was certain it was only her willful personality keeping her alive. Closing his eyes Jack let tears trace down his face. Sam suddenly reached out with a shaking hand and started searching the ground directly around her. He knew what she was looking for and slipped his hand into hers. Sam closed her hand around his fingers with a surprisingly strong grip, proving she had more life left in her than it seemed. Satisfied with her prize she brought Jack's hand to her chest so she could keep a hold of it.

"Carter?"

Sam squeezed his hand and nuzzled him slightly to let him know she was listening.

"Is it too late to tell you I love you?"

"Ne...never..."

"I love you."