MEMOIRS OF
MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL
(Re-activated)
3. P4C-970
Chapter One
By Arrietty
2008
Of course, it was no surprise that my head hurt. It was a big honking headache right behind my eyes. At least it had moved from the back of my head where it usually thumped away.
I rolled over onto my side and attempted to open my eyelids a crack. The top of Janet's head was only three inches from my nose. I reached over and checked her pulse, it was steady, but she was still unconscious. I sat up and immediately regretted it as the thumping increased its tempo.
Sam was slumped over against the wall in a half sitting position; blood had dripped down from the side of her head onto the floor. Headache forgotten, I crawled over to her.
"Sam," I called softly. She murmured and moved slightly.
I heard a scrabbling sound behind me then a groan. It was Daniel. "Janet? Janet! Talk to me," his voice filled with concern.
I twisted my head around, making a pain spike down the back of my neck. Ignoring the pain, I kept twisting; Daniel was leaning over Janet, lifting her up into his arms. I could see Janet's eyes flutter open, rest on Daniel and then she smiled.
I let out a big sigh.
I turned back to Sam, she was still out cold. I wish I'd had a bucket of water, the way I was feeling about her at the moment it would have suited me quite well.
"Sam" I touched her cheek with the back of my fingers. Fortunately, the bleeding had stopped as the blood had congealed. "Sam," my voice was gentle, belying my previous feelings only moments before. I never would do anything to harm Sam. I just wish we could sort things out.
She moved her head to the side and groaned. "Jack?" Her eyes popped open momentarily before she shut them with a grimace.
"I know I've been bashed around a bit, but I can't look that terrible," I stated.
She smiled as she opened her eyes again. I helped her up into a more comfortable position against the wall. Her hand rested on my arm while I checked out her injury. She gave a hiss as I pressed around the wound.
"I don't think there's too much damage. How do you feel?" I asked Sam.
"Headache, but nothing I can't handle." She bristled slightly and moved away from me, making me immediately regret not using a bucket of water after all. Not that I could see a bucket of water in the room.
The walls were smooth and coloured a boring grey. The floor was made out of something I'd never seen before; dark grey ridges zig-zagged across a black shiny surface - oh hang on, it looked very familiar, which reminded me.
"Did I see what I thought I saw, before being knocked out?" I asked generally to the room.
"If you mean a harvester similar to those used by the Aschen, then yes," Sam answered.
"Actually," Daniel stood up, helping Janet get to her feet also, "I believe it was an Aschen harvester. This flooring and walls look very much like the inside of one."
"I agree," Sam said. She tried to stand up, but wobbled a bit and then slid down the wall onto the floor. I put out my hand to steady her, but she shook me off. 'For crying out loud.'
Exasperated, I stood up and checked out the only door in the room to see if we could find a way out. It wasn't very productive, but kept me occupied.
"Sam, you okay?" Daniel asked.
Janet scurried over and prodded and poked Sam. She let her and didn't pull away. Yup, it was definitely me she was snippy at. I'd had a small hope that she was annoyed with everyone, but the hope had gone now.
I could hear footsteps outside the door intermingled with low voices. Adrenalin began to flow as I ducked to the side of the door. I signalled everyone in the room of the arrivals. Sam staggered to her feet, with Janet supporting her. Daniel stayed where he was in the centre of the room.
There was a beep then a swish as the door opened. The person, who walked in, was the last person that I expected.
"Ambassador!" Sam exclaimed.
Finding my voice, I managed to squeak out a sentence, "Faxon, you're still alive?"
"Only just, by the looks of it," said Janet as she moved forward towards him. The door swished shut behind him.
He looked old and haggard. His hair peppered liberally with white, his eyes bloodshot and his skin was yellowed and leathery.
He turned to Sam, "Hello, Samantha." When he smiled it looked as though it hurt him.
"What happened to you?" Daniel moved in between Sam and my line of sight.
"I'm their latest guinea pig. Unfortunately, I'm not one of their more successful experiments."
"We thought you were dead, Ambassador," Sam walked into my sight and caught his attention again. "I'm sorry, I left you behind on P3A-194, but . . ."
"Its okay, Samantha," he held up his hand to stop her from talking. "I most probably won't have long to speak with you. We are on P4C-970."
"The Aschen home world," said Sam.
Faxon nodded, "Yes, the Aschen home world. You were brought here from Nartion which is part of their confederation of planets."
Daniel ran his hand through his hair, "Of course, why didn't we see it when we first arrived, an Agrarian planet." He turned away from us and walked to the back of the room.
Faxon continued filling us in on what to expect. "They will experiment on you as they don't like using their own people, so they use any unsuspecting humans that come along. I think they've run out of viable planets too. They keep dialling addresses, but don't get what they want. Unfortunately, they soon cottoned onto your list of bogus addresses."
"They weren't bogus," I interrupted, "They were real addresses. I suppose they didn't find the black hole?"
"No," was Faxon's succinct answer.
"Oh that was a real shame," my voice was laced with sarcasm.
"Anyway, soon they're going to take one or two or maybe even all of you from here and start experimenting on you. I'm sorry, I can't help you. The Stargate is totally inaccessible; it is surrounded with a state of the art defence system. The only way is to get into the mainframe computer and find out the codes to the system and shut it down. And they're not going to let any of us anywhere near that." He sighed and looked sad. "It's really great to see you guys, but I wish it wasn't like this." Faxon's gaze was totally on Sam the whole time he spoke. "I'm lucky they let me see you even now. I requested it."
"So why would they let you?" I asked.
Janet answered, "Because you are dying, aren't you?" She looked Faxon directly in the eye as she asked the question.
He nodded in reply. "Yes, they only give me a few weeks. Then that's it."
"And they can't do anything for you?" I asked. "I mean they are these oh so wonderful scientists that can make people live for longer, but they can't fix this?" I waved my arm around the room; I was annoyed and frustrated by this whole scenario.
He just shook his head.
I heard footsteps outside again and waited for the beep and swishing noises that came with the opening of the door.
Faxon leaned close to Daniel and whispered something to him, before smiling at Sam. He waved to all of us then turned around and walked out the door. It swished shut behind him leaving us with perplexed expressions on our faces.
"So, Daniel," I moved over to him and got in his space, "What did he say?"
Daniel spoke very quietly, "He told me where the computer mainframe is." Then he shrugged. "But it doesn't mean much to me as I don't know the layout of the city.
I looked over at Carter who had moved over by the door and was listening to see if anyone was coming. She shrugged at Daniel's information.
Daniel was right, the information is no good to us, if we don't know our way around the city. And Faxon had had seven years to get to know this place. Deciding that we most probably had a little while to wait before our debut in guinea pigdom, I sauntered over to the far wall and sat down.
"Carter, take a load off. I don't want to have to make it an order," I added as she had made no effort to move from her post.
Her gaze was penetrating as she looked straight at me. Then she pushed herself away from the wall and sat down beside me, with a foot of space between us.
She was silent. After a few moments of this, I decided to say something. Ignoring the little voice in the back of my head saying, 'keep mum, don't say a word, shut up, you idiot.' The voice getting more belligerent as my mouth opened and the first word came out of it.
"You haven't asked about Shanahan."
'You idiotic oaf, for crying out loud, what a twerp. You've gone and done it now.'
I should have listened to my voice.
"Why should I need to?" her voice was cold like steel. "You've already told me about him."
'I did?'
"I did? When?" I turned to look at her, but she was looking out into the room, her mouth in a hard line. She was one angry lady.
Her steely eyes turned and looked at me. I swear that I saw sparks fire out of them. "On the first night on Ishta's planet."
I groaned.
"So, I now have no need to ask you anything about Pete."
I hung my head down on my arms hanging over my bent knees. 'I'm dead.'
I heard a snort from Daniel's direction. His life span was getting very short if he kept that up.
"Sam, I think you should put him out of his misery."
'Wha . . .'
My head shot up and I looked at Daniel. Was that a smirk I saw? Yes, the man was smirking. I turned to see Sam trying not to smile.
"What's going on?" I asked, feeling a tad annoyed with everyone, but not sure why.
"Jack, it doesn't matter about Pete, we were over anyhow."
Bewildered, my gaze turned to Daniel, Janet and then back to Sam again. "You were?" I asked my head shooting forward.
She had the decency to look slightly abashed. "And when were you going to . . . quoting Daniel here," I flicked a couple of fingers in his direction; "Put me out of my misery?"
"I'm still mad at you for that other thing, but about Pete, that's fine."
"What other thing?" I was really getting frustrated now. "And when did you finish with Shanahan? For cryin' out loud. You were engaged." My voice had risen an octave and I was definitely almost squeaking by now, but I really didn't care.
She smiled in amusement.
"Pete broke it off with me a few days before we went to Baal's fortress."
"With you? He must be nutso. Why would anyone give up a chance to spend the rest of their life being with you?" 'Ooops, I'd let a bit too much slip there.'
Her smile increased in size.
"And what other thing?"
She shook her head before scooting closer to me. I glared at Daniel and Janet who quickly looked away and started to study the plain grey wall as if it was covered in text.
"Pete and I are finished, we were over before I was taken by Baal." Her voice was soft and gentle.
"Why," I asked. The question burning in my heart.
"He said that my heart wasn't in the relationship. That you kept on getting in the way."
"Oh." I was speechless.
"And I was in denial."
"Ah," I said reduced to one syllable words.
"He was right." Sam moved slightly closer to me. I could feel the warmth of her shoulder through our clothing.
"Sweet." I smiled broadly.
Just when things were going to get interesting, the door swished open. Borren walked through the door.
I quickly stood, my body tense. "I thought the audit was next month," I quipped. The only people in the room thought it was funny were my team members.
"You," he pointed Janet, "And you," he pointed to Daniel. "Come with me."
Two men that I hadn't seen before, came into the room armed with weapons, they looked a bit like the phazers I'd seen under duress from Teal'c, on Star Trek. I was totally sure that they were just as lethal as the phazers from Star Trek were made out to be.
I nodded to Daniel and Janet to follow the men from the room.
"You and you," Borren pointed to us, "Follow them." He pointed to another two men holding the little rectangle mobile phone like contraptions.
"Not very chatty are you?" I goaded him as I walked past.
He looked at me in disdain and followed Janet and Daniel down the corridor. We, on the other hand went the opposite direction down the corridor, around the corner and into a large sterile room. It looked suspiciously like an operating room. I glanced over at Sam to see what she thought, by her expression; I'd say she agreed with me.
We were two very unhappy guinea pigs.
2031
Teal'c, how are you, buddy?
I am well, O'Neill.
I heard that you got hit bad.
I have healed sufficiently, O'Neill. I see that you are in your own room. You are most fortunate.
That I am, Teal'c that I am. Actually, the nurses got fed up with my rambling into this computer and kicked me out.
I can not stay long. Ishta and I are leaving later today.
Ishta is here? When did she arrive?
Several days ago.
Oh.
I wish to return to my family.
Don't leave it too long before you come again, will you, Teal'c?
I will not, O'Neill.
You will stay a while though?
Yes, I have time.
I'll just switch this computer off first.
2008
Now where was I? Oh yes, we were in the operating type room.
Mollem walked into the room, flagged by four large Aschen men. I could see the calculating look on his face as his eyes looked me up and down.
"Colonel O'Neill, we meet again." His expressionless voice didn't show any triumph at our capture, even though it sparked in his eyes.
"General O'Neill," Sam informed him.
"Retired general, actually." I looked pointedly at Sam.
He ignored us and nodded to the burly guards. They pounced, not gently either. I managed to get in a couple of good kicks and blooded one of their noses, but it didn't work. I could hear the Aschen's version of swearing from the other two guards as they grappled with Sam. I was proud of her.
Soon, we were both strapped to hard metal beds.
Mollem walked over to me and looked at me with a sneer. "You are so puny, you humans, but make excellent test subjects. We lost a whole planet to your treachery and now you're going to pay."
Before I could reply with something suitable, he shoved a honking great big needle into my arm and I was out cold.
I awakened feeling groggy and disorientated. Sam was lying only about two feet away still asleep. A large IV bag half full of green liquid was connected to her arm. I twisted my head up and a similar green bag was connected to my arm also. There was no way I could dislodge the bag because I was tied down too tightly.
Mollem came into the room. He totally ignored me and went over to Sam. He had a white small cylinder in his hand which he pressed against her neck. With a hiss it released something into her body.
He came over and did the same to me. "What are you doing?" He didn't answer. "Why are you doing this?" I asked frustrated. I was really getting fed up with these robot like aliens. No emotion, no anger, nothing.
He stood over me for a second, smirked slightly and walked from the room. It didn't take me long to succumb to the drug he'd just injected into me.
I don't know how long we were in there, but I do remember waking periodically and being injected by Mollem or one of his lackeys. Annoyingly, Sam was never awake at the same time as me. I really needed her scientific input at the moment, my over active imagination was going rampant. I could only see her, not myself, so I was able to assure myself that I wasn't turning green or growing another limb. Who knows what these freaky aliens were doing to us.
At least I didn't have to worry about using the bathroom. As per usual when you were incapacitated, the medical profession had that sorted. But I was sure getting hungry, my stomach growled with annoyance. In fact, it was competing with Sam's stomach that gurgled and grumbled away.
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