MEMOIRS OF

MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL

(Re-activated)

3. P4C-970

Chapter Two

By Arrietty

2008

The next time I awoke, I was lying on a cold floor in what you'd term, loosely, I might add, a hospital gown. The back of my hand was sore where the IV had gone into, but apart from stiffness of my joints and the hunger that ached in my belly I seemed to be uninjured.

I slowly sat up and looked around. The room was sparsely furnished with a table and one hard chair, sitting on the table were two piles of clothing and they looked like our BDU's newly laundered. Two pairs of boots sat on the floor by the chair. What appeared to be a bathroom was situated through a doorway on the far wall. Over against another wall was a small two seated sofa, and lying upon it was Sam, also dressed in a hospital gown.

I scrambled over to her and felt for her pulse, it gently thumped away under my finger tips.

"Sam."

She stirred.

"Sam!" I called more urgently.

Sam's eyelids fluttered open and her eyes searched the room before resting on my face. A smile full of tenderness and caring flitted across her face before she sat bolt upright and looked around in fright as she remembered what had happened.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know, but not back in our cell." I looked around with her, "But our clothes are on the table and it looks like there is a bathroom too." I nodded to the small open doorway that led off to what looked like a sink and a toilet.

"Where are Janet and Daniel?" She asked.

"I don't know." I was worried, I didn't like our team to be split or not know what was happening to them.

I helped her to stand and then handed her the clothes that sat on the table. She walked off to the bathroom very stiffly. How long we'd been sedated I had no idea, but I was extremely hungry and weak.

I quickly dressed in my BDU's which were washed and neatly pressed. It felt good to wear clean clothes again. I was still lacing up my boots when Sam came out, also dressed, her clothes hung on her. She'd lost a lot of weight.

"Jack, what happened to us?" she asked.

"I have absolutely no idea. Do you?"

"I have some theories, but really I don't know anymore than you do." She let out a sigh.

Sam sat down beside me on the sofa with her boots and socks in her hands and proceeded to put them on.

"I really need a good meal at the moment," she grumbled.

"Yeah, I totally agree," and as if in agreement my belly rumbled.

She giggled. It was music to my ears.

"So, how much do you remember?" I asked.

"Not much, I was sedated most of the time."

"That's not what I meant," I said, feeling rather nervous at what her reaction was going to be.

"Oh, that?" She stopped tying her boot and looked up at me. "It is hard to talk about it, but I will when I'm ready," she assured me.

I nodded and gave her the best reassuring smile that I was able to give her. "I can wait."

She smiled and continued to tie up her boot laces.

Just at that moment the door swished open and four guards came into the room. Two were carrying trays while the other two were carrying lethal looking weapons. I knew they were lethal because they were our confiscated P-90's.

The trays were unceremoniously plonked on the table. The gravy or whatever it was slopped over the edge and made a mess on the table top. I really didn't care. I was famished. As soon as the guards had gone, I got both trays and brought them over and we sat down to eat.

The food was good, tasty and nutritious. I really didn't care if they'd laced it with anything, if they wanted to poison us or give us something we didn't want, all they'd have to do was tie us down and feed us intravenously and I didn't want them to do that. Besides, we needed the food to give us energy so we could escape.

About ten minutes after we'd finished they returned and took our trays away. I tried to ask them a few questions, but they wouldn't answer or communicate with us at all.

"You try next time, Carter," I said after they shut the door.

She snorted, "Yes of course."

I knew by that response that there was no way she was going to.

"Jack."

"Yes," I turned to her, she was watching me intently.

"I am ready to tell you what happened now. Please don't interrupt me, I know you'll have questions, but please, just let me tell you what I want to tell."

I nodded and pulled her down to lean against me. I could feel her sigh against my chest. It felt good to have her there.

Sam's story

Lieutenant Colonel Carter stepped through the Stargate straight into an ambush. She felt, more than saw Teal'c whisk off behind the gate into the line of trees to get a better angle. The Jaffa were everywhere, they must have arrived since the SGC received the telemetry from the MALP.

Ducking behind the DHD, she loosed off a volley of shots. Two Jaffa went down. She didn't wait to see them land as she ran, bent double, towards several bushes that would give her better cover and concealment.

The familiar staccato of bullets from a P-90 behind her, told Sam that General O'Neill had arrived. He was crouched down beside Daniel who was trying to dial in Earth's address.

The loud boom of a warning horn echoed around the surrounding hills. More Jaffa would be on their way, they were toast there was no way they'd survive this ambush. They needed to get out of there fast.

Sam heard over the loud exchange of fire Colonel O'Neill's voice call out. "I'll cover you." She saw him lift his hand up, three fingers extended. The colonel then spun around the DHD, raking the bushes with rifle fire, trying the get the sniper that had them pinned down. He had moved. Sam watched in horror as Daniel caught a full blast in the chest from a staff weapon. He went down in a cloud of smoke. For a moment she was shocked by the sight. Collecting herself quickly, she twisted round to take out the offending Jaffa only to see his staff weapon lined up on her chest. She tried to jump clear, but the blast hit her with full force, pain exploded in her head and shoulder, she was dead before she hit the ground.

Sam was awakened by a soft grating sound that penetrated her slumber. Warm softness surrounded her body; she felt pain free and drowsy just like she felt on a warm spring morning after a good long sleep. Cold air disturbed the warmth of her cocoon and bright light shone through her eyelids. Opening her eyes to a slit, she could just make out a silhouette of a man leaning over her. He seemed familiar, but not in a good comfortable way. So she opened her eyes wide and stared straight at the goa'uld Baal.

"Why, Colonel Carter, it is good of you to join us."

She closed her eyes and groaned.

Her upper arms were grabbed by two Jaffa and she was hauled out of the sarcophagus. Sam felt drugged and only half awake, but not enough to quash the fear that threatened to make her limbs quiver. Finding her feet, but still docile she went with the Jaffa out through the large room along a corridor and was shoved none too gently into a small cell. She had half hoped to find other members of her team here, but this wasn't to be. The room was bare, no sign of anyone or anything. Sam leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position onto the floor.

Sam didn't know if any members of her team had survived or had got away. The question most pressing on her mind and heart was, why did they leave her behind. With these thoughts rumbling around in her mind, she slowly dozed off into a much needed natural sleep.

They came for her only three hours later. The Jaffa weren't gentle either. They pulled her roughly to her feet and dragged her along the floor, not letting her manage to get her feet firmly planted on the ground. So she fought; kicking and biting at whatever she could reach. One of them punched her in the face, almost knocking her senseless.

"Kree!" the Jaffa ordered and dragged her semi-limp form along the corridor.

Dazed, Sam let them drag her along. She needed time to think, to work out a plan of escape. She had a fair idea what could be in store for her. She'd read O'Neill's report. Even though it hadn't said much about what he'd suffered, she'd been with Janet when they'd gone over his clothes. Sam had seen the holes, the slits where the knives had penetrated and the holes that had been made with acid. The thought of this future for Sam filled her with dread. She didn't think she'd be as strong as O'Neill had been to resist this kind of torture.

The room she was dragged into was roughly made. It was as though they hadn't had time to finish it properly. It was big with high ceilings and a few sconces placed at intervals along the walls. Some were alight, while others were dead causing weird shaped shadows to dance on the walls. Baal usually used power to give light, but here she could see the naked flame flickering.

No one else was in the room with her, but the two Jaffa. Along a wall was a huge spider web of wrought iron. She recognised it from the description in O'Neill's report, although he had described it as more irregular. She was sure this wasn't the same place O'Neill had been held. The building was unfinished and the web was made differently. Whatever this place was, she was certain that it would have the same outcome.

With lightening speed, she ground her boot down the front of one of the Jaffa's shins and with her elbow she belted the other one in the eye. Both went down in screams of pain. With a well aimed kick to the face, she knocked the shinned guy onto his back. He was out cold. The other grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back, slowly choking off her air supply. Pulling uselessly at the Jaffa's arm with her hands, Sam began to sink to her knees as her precious oxygen was depleted. The Jaffa that held her in his death grip turned around and pushed her away from himself so she fell towards the giant web. Gravity took over and she landed heavily on the grid, her face pressed painfully against the cold metal. Sam gasped for breath, coughing as her throat hurt with each life giving breath that flowed into her starved lungs.

"Colonel Carter, you and I need to have a little chat."

Sam closed her eyes, took a big breath and with difficulty, slowly turned over onto her back. Baal stood before her, his smile false and cruel. He was holding a knife with his finger tips. She wished fervently that he would cut himself and bleed to death. But unfortunately, her wish wasn't granted.

"I'm sure, O'Neill has filled you in on our chats we've had together. So you know what this is about. You can stop this right now."

"Not likely," Sam gasped out.

Baal gave a small irritating laugh before turning a serious face towards Sam. "All you have to do is tell me the codes to your defence systems. It is easy really."

Sam rolled her eyes before staring straight at Baal. Her gaze was steady and strong. There were no signs of the fear that gripped her innards showing on her face.

"Very well then," Baal answered Sam's obvious defiance.

He let go of the knife.

Pain seared into Sam's shoulder, ironically enough it was the same shoulder that the staff blast had hit her before. This time it didn't kill her, but bit deep into the sinew causing tremendous pain.

"The codes," Baal stated.

Sam shook her head.

Another knife flew through the air and landed with a sickening thud into her thigh. A warm trickle of blood began to flow down her leg. He'd hit the main arterial artery. Sam smiled. Baal's aim was off.

Baal managed to mask his displeasure at what had happened and picked up another knife. This time his aim was true and it sliced into the front of her thigh right to the bone. Sam cried out. Her whole leg was in excruciating pain.

Slowly the life blood began to seep out of her body, the edges of the room began to grey and turn black. The last thing she saw was a pin point of red with Baal's smug face in the centre.

Sam lost count of the days, weeks or was it months that she was Baal's prisoner. More and more each day, she lost some part of herself. What made her the person she was, what made her true and good. Her mind was in such a fog that even if she'd wanted to give Baal the codes she couldn't remember them. They had been changed so many times over the years that she couldn't work out which ones were the recent ones or which ones had been discontinued.

Daniel was dead, she was sure of it now. O'Neill had left her behind and Teal'c had gone back to his god. Convinced in her mind this had happened, Sam spiralled down into a well of despair.

It was when she was rock bottom that Baal changed his tactics. He started asking about Jolinar and the Tok'ra. This was something that Sam knew deep within her heart that she could not reveal. Her father was Tok'ra; he must be kept safe at all costs. Baal would ask her about the Tok'ra and she would reply with a list of numbers, no rhyme or reason. It infuriated him beyond measure. Anger replaced his smugness and with anger came rash decisions.

Baal had in his possession the device that Anubis had used on Thor and Jonas Quinn. It was time to use it on Carter.

Carter was put under a mild sedation, and they implanted the device and plugged it into a computer. Baal rubbed his hands with glee as information flowed out onto the screen. Baal learned about cars, planes and bus timetables. He learned all about how do clean out the fridge after being left for six weeks growing mould, but he didn't learn anything about Carter.

Pulling up a diagnostic programme, Baal searched for why this was happening. Something was hiding information, keeping it safe. He needed to delve in there further and ordered the machine to be turned on full.

Immediately, Carter went into convulsions. Baal called out for the machine to be turned down, but it was too late, she was dead.

Baal was furious with the outcome and turned off the machine. "Take that thing out, it isn't doing any good and put her in the sarcophagus, we'll try again tomorrow," he ordered and stormed out of the room.

This Tau'ri was driving him insane. Anger coursed through his veins, this woman wasn't going to get the better of him. He still hadn't quite got over O'Neill's escape and to be thwarted by a mere woman only made it worse.

The following day, they dragged Carter into the room. The Tau'ri woman was kicking and screaming with a high pitched voice. Nothing like he'd heard from her before. Puzzled, he studied her as she thrashed between the two perturbed looking Jaffa.

"Jaffa, Kree!"

The Jaffa dragged her closer to the grid and let her fall backwards onto it. Terror filled eyes stared out through a tangle of hair.

"She is not healed," he stated. "Put her back."

Baal ran his hand over the release mechanism, the grid opened and Carter fell screaming to the bottom.

A woman crouched in the corner of a cell belonging to the goa'uld Baal. Fear clutched at her from every angle. She had known no different to what she now experienced. Every day two men came into her cell and dragged her from it and took her to another man. He was handsome, but cruel. He used everything he could to cause her pain. Each time he hurt her, he would ask her something in a language she didn't understand. The woman tried to explain that she didn't understand, but all that came from her mouth were unfamiliar sounds. Each time he'd finished hurting her, he would kill her and then revive her in a large golden box. Terror and pain dogged this young woman over several weeks and finally, the evil man stopped hurting her.

Every day a man with a symbol on his forehead would still bring her food, but he didn't take her away and hurt her or put her in the golden box. For the first few days after they stopped hurting her, she writhed with pain and despair. Her body trembled and sweated as though she had a fever. Images flashed through her mind, ones of terror and fear. People she loved wafted past her eyes, only to be murdered before her by the very man that had hurt her over and over again. Finally, after six days, she awakened without the trembling and the sweating and the visions had fled.

A bowl of cold food sat just inside the door. The woman scrabbled over on all fours to the bowl and gulped it down. She was ravenous. She was covered with filth and dirt from the mud floor. She didn't recognise this place, but whatever it was; she wasn't going to stay for long.

Later that day, the man that brought her food returned with two women. He screwed up his nose in distaste at the smell that permeated the room. Wasting no time, he lunged for the woman and grabbed hold of her arms and pinned them behind her back. With one heave he threw her over his shoulder and marched fast down the corridor into a huge steaming room. In a large tub he threw the dirty woman in, clothes, boots and all. She made a resounding smack as she hit the surface of the tub and then sank down under the water. She came out gasping for a breath screaming at the top of her lungs.

The man shook his head and walked from the room and left the two women to wrestle the dirty woman's clothes from her and clean her.

After a lot of work, the woman stood shivering beside the tub with a large towel wrapped around her. She felt clean, it felt good to her. Even though the women had been rough, they had been kind. And for the first time in this woman's life she had felt some gentleness.

The women laughed when they put the bright yellow dress on her. It reached to just above her knees. "You look like a flower," they said. "What's your name?" they asked.

The young woman just shook her head not understanding them.

"You," one of the kind woman said as she poked a finger at the woman, "You're name is La Haia. You're a flower."

La Haia frowned, still not understanding. "La Haia," she repeated, pointing at La Haia. "Say after me, LA HAIA." The kind woman mouthed out the words to La Haia who copied.

"La Haia." Her voice was soft, nothing like the wild cat that they had wrestled in the tub.

"Yes, yes, La Haia." The women smiled and nodded. La Haia gave a small smile in return.

The women gave La Haia a small loaf of bread and some cheese. "Go eat, you need it, you're to skinny." They pushed her gently to sit on a stool beside the fire, while they cleaned up the mess beside the tub. It didn't take La Haia long to finish off the food, she was still hungry, but seeing the women who had been so kind to her clean up the mess she'd made, La Haia grabbed a towel and knelt down beside them and began to mop the floor. The women were amazed at this lovely young woman that would help. This was not what they had heard about her. La Haia was meant to be a great enemy of their god and would do anything in her power to kill their god, but here she was willing to help them clean.

2008

There wasn't anywhere for me to think by myself except the bathroom and I'd been in here long enough. Sam would be getting worried by now. I was shocked and my heart ached for the young woman called La Haia. I came in here, because I couldn't stay to hear anymore. I'm not one for tears, very rarely do they ever come, but today I was fighting tooth and nail to keep them at bay. And to top it off, I knew this was only half of the story. Not only had Sam gone through the repeated torture of Baal, but La Haia had also, the young innocent woman that I'd rescued no, bought from Neeron. The ache turned into pain and I felt a tear escape. I quickly switched on the faucet and sloshed some cold water onto my face. There wasn't a towel to dry my face, so I wiped it on the front of my shirt. It was clean.

"Jack. Are you okay in there?" Sam called through the door.

"Yeah, won't be a sec," I replied.

I drew in a deep breath and opened the door. Her anxious face waited by the door. I smiled my usual everything is right smile and brushed past her. I didn't get far as she caught hold of my elbow and stopped me in mid stride.

"Are you okay?" she asked again.

"Yes," I replied gruffly, trying hard to hide my feelings.

"I don't believe you."

Busted.

"We had no choice to leave you behind, Sam," I said still facing away from her.

She walked around to face me, I looked away.

"I know, Daniel told me what happened." She moved around so she could see into my face.

"Oh, Jack." Her face crumpled with tears. It was my undoing and I pulled her to me. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she held me tight. My body shook with emotion as I held the most precious person in the world to me.

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