Chapter Two

Jack was the first one to wake up, and he groaned as he sat up. Clutching his head he moaned, "Definitely the worst headache." His eyesight was blurry and he was seeing pink and blue spots swimming in his vision. So he sat there and waited until it cleared. Finally, Jack opened his eyes and the world was right again.

Looking around, Jack took inventory of his team and their situation. Sam was slumped over in the corner of the room. She was unconscious, but she didn't seem to have any visible injuries. Daniel was in the opposite corner from Sam and was lying on the floor face down. He was breathing and seemed fine, so he moved on to Teal'c. Teal'c was the closest to Jack, only a few feet away, lying against the wall. He also had no visible injuries so he started examining the cell they were in. The room was fairly large in size and the bars that acted as a fourth wall were impossibly thick, so there was no hope of anyone squeezing through them. There was dirt all over the floor and there were obviously windows in the hallway, since there was light getting into their room somehow. Their weapons were gone and so was everything else that had been in his pockets. He also noticed that all of their vests were gone too. This also meant that not one of them was likely to have the GDO, another problem to add to the ever growing list.

Jack had been sitting against the wall for almost ten minutes and still no one else had woken up. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Then, out of nowhere, he heard voices and footsteps coming towards their cell. Suddenly four men with staff weapons stopped right before they reached Jack's sight and the cell opened.

Jack jumped up. As soon as the cell opened, all weapons were pointed at him. They ushered him out and into the hallway where immediately he was immediately blindfolded and his hands were bound together.

When they finally removed the blindfold from, Jack blinked a few times to get his eyes adjusted to the light once again. He looked around the room and noticed it was almost identical to the cell he'd just been taken from, except that all four walls were solid and there was a small door behind him, which he could see was being guarded by at least two men. There were also two small slits towards the top of the wall that allowed only a bare minimum of light to escape into the room.

Jack knew there was no way he was getting out at the moment, especially when his absence would not go unnoticed. So he stayed where he was and waited for an opportunity escape.

About half an later, a man finally entered Jack's cell. Tall, deeply tanned and well built, there was something about him that screamed danger. And the lack of light only seemed to emphasize the menace by casting shadows all over his face. The man said something to Jack in a language he didn't understand.

"Well, when Danny's right." Jack thought.

Again the man said something to Jack, which he thought seemed to be a question. When Jack didn't say anything, his captor got angry. He yelled something out to one of the guards and they brought in a device Jack had never seen before. And although he'd never seen anything like it, he definitely knew what the man would do with it. Sure enough the man took the instrument in hand and walked towards Jack, once more asking something. When once again Jack didn't answer, the man pushed a button on the device and the pain was blinding.

:::An unknown amount of time later :::

Jack woke up in a haze. He opened his eyes and realized he was back in the cell with the rest of his team. He moved to sit up and felt a sharp pain. He groaned from the pain and the others, who had woken up after Jack had been taken, looked up at him.

"Sir!" cried Sam as she, Daniel, and Teal'c moved towards Jack.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, "Have you been injured?"

"Never felt better," Jack said avoiding the question.

"Really," Daniel said, "then try sitting up."

Never one to give in, Jack again tried to sit up. He grabbed his side and fell back down. He was pretty sure that he'd broken quite a few ribs. He took a few deep breaths, trying to lessen the pain. It worked, but only a little bit and when he looked up he saw the worried faces of his SG-1 staring back at him.

"I'm fine," he told them, "just a little tired."

"Jack, you've been out for hours. We thought you were dead at first, when you were brought back in."

"Well sorry for the scare Danny, but seriously I'm fine." Jack said quietly and gave them a look that said to drop the subject.

"What did they want?" Daniel asked

"Well seeing as we don't speak the same language, I didn't exactly understand what they wanted. I was a bit preoccupied," Jack said a bit sarcastically.

"At least let us take a look at you and assess your injuries." Sam said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

Jack looked at her and saw the worried look in her eyes. He thought about it for a second, but he didn't want them, especially Sam, to see the extent of the damage. He was pretty sure was serious.

"No," Jack said forcefully, "Frasier can have a look when we get back."

"And exactly how are we going to do that?" asked Daniel. "They took all our gear, including the GDO."

"We'll just have to get it all back then." Jack said.

"And exactly how are we supposed to do that," Daniel asked, "we don't know where we are, how many people there are, or how far away we are from the gate. Let alone in which direction it is."

"Whoa," Jack said, "calm down there. We'll get out of here one way or another."

"Indeed," Teal'c added, "we have been in many dire situations, and we have prevailed."

So there they sat, in silence, trying to think up ways to escape. They all throught of ideas that they knew wouldn't work, but said them none the less. Something had to work eventually. In between their whispered conversations Jack kept attempting to sit up and see how far he could walk. Jack knew that when they did escape he would need to be able to move around and help fight if necessary, so he persisted even when the others protested. Soon though, Jack began coughing up blood and sent up a red flag to the others. They didn't allow him to get up again after this began happening. They knew they needed to get him back to the SGC soon.

Suddenly Sam sat up and said, "I have a plan." Unfortunately, the men came back in at this time and took Jack again, much to the distress of Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c. There were only four men who came and since they were even, they thought they might be able to knock them out. Jack was standing in front of everyone and when he moved towards the men, one of them swung his staff and hit right on his ribs. Jack sharply inhaled as the pain overwhelmed him and he hit the ground with a hard thud. Sam's eyes widened and she, Daniel, and Teal'c rushed towards Jack but there were a lot more of the natives who had weapons all pointed at them and at Jack. So they watched helplessly as Jack was unconsciously dragged away.