MEMOIRS OF

MAJOR GENERAL JACK O'NEILL

(Re-activated)

3. P4C-970

Chapter Six

By Arrietty

2008

The journey was less stressful for La Haia on this day as she began to understand the man that owned her. He wasn't used to riding horses, that was apparent on the first day, and she found it amusing to see him in pain. He was soft, but didn't miss a trick; she'd have to be careful if she was to escape with the horses. At least she'll be able to travel faster with the horses than he could on foot.

He gave her some kind of food bar, it tasted even nicer than the fruit that he'd given her for breakfast, she wanted more, but he wouldn't give her any. He seemed amused by her wanting it, not understanding, she thought she'd wait and see what would happen.

This time, she didn't want him to not look after the horses as he hadn't done it properly last time, so she unloaded them and started to care for them. He seemed pleased with her doing this. Maybe she could lull him into a false sense of security.

When La Haia had finished with the horses, the stranger came over and caught hold of her arm. Fear made her muscles tense, was he going to punish her, she still hadn't quite got the measure of him yet. He reached forward and unlocked her shackles; they fell to the ground with a loud thump. He said something she didn't understand.

Then asked her to come in the language she understood, maybe it would get easier, she wasn't sure.

He took hold of the horses and led them into another cave. An underground stream flowed along the back of it, but it was dry and warm. The stranger turned around and left La Haia with the horses. She stood for a moment amazed and realised that he had left her to tie up the horses because a few moments later he returned with the packs that she already unloaded. Hoping to be of some use, La Haia collected some dried wood and made a small pyramid in the middle of the cave, she'd seen him do that the previous night before lighting it.

He said something again, but she wasn't sure what it was he said. He pulled out some things from his pack and asked her something, she wasn't quite sure until he gestured with his arm for her to follow him. With a glance back at the horses she followed him out of the cave.

They arrived at a large pool of water; the sun glinted off the surface. La Haia sat down amongst some purple flowers and watched as the man removed his boots and socks. He turned from her and started to wade into the water. La Haia stood up and followed him to the edge, the water looked inviting, but when she touched the edge with her finger it was cold. She decided that if the man was silly enough to get ill in the cold water he could, she turned around and wandered back to the warm spot where the flowers were.

The man ran out of the water and grabbed her around the waist and flung her over his shoulder. As soon as he started to wade into the water, she knew what was going to happen, it was cold in there and she didn't want to get cold. La Haia started to fight, but he threw her in. She went down into the water, scrabbling to find the bottom with her feet. With a gasp she found the surface and drew in much needed oxygen.

He laughed, La Haia felt humiliated. She stood seething with anger. He was standing close to her, something smelled sweet and then she could feel him rubbing something into her hair. It felt good, it smelled good. La Haia looked out through her soapy hair and saw he was holding a bottle of something. She reached out and grabbed it and poured more on her head and began to rub it in. The smell reminded her of the washer women, who had been so kind to her and had given her, her name.

La Haia got right into this washing thing. The man had some other stuff in a bottle you used instead of the blocks of soap. It smelled just as nice as the hair soap. She watched as the man disappeared under the surface to rinse his hair of soap. She copied and went under as well. When she stood her hair hung down her face and she couldn't see, so she slipped down under the water. This time when she surfaced, she tipped her head up to the sky. Turning, she looked over at the kind man who'd made her feel human again. Only two people had ever made her feel like this before and that was three years ago in the washroom of the evil man.

The stranger was crouched in the water with his head above the surface, his face was a mask of horror. He was angry; she could see it in his face. What had she done wrong? Fear rooted her to the spot. He stood and La Haia immediately lowered her head in submission. She didn't want to be beaten.

He lifted her chin with his fingers and searched her face. Confusion and fear was in his expression, La Haia was confused. He reached around and touched the back of her neck, it made her more afraid. She could feel the man trembling, with what she didn't know, was it anger, fear, hate. She had no idea, but the way he looked at her, made her want to run far away.

He spoke to La Haia again; she looked down at the water in submission.

He was angry; she could hear it in his voice. He grabbed her by her shoulders and twisted her around to look at him. He spoke then shook his head. Then suddenly, he turned from her and ran out the water, stopped at the edge spoke again and ran towards the caves.

La Haia feared that he was going for the brander so she lost no time in leaving the pool and running towards the hills. Fear giving her legs speed she flew over the grass, through the forest. Thunder rumbled in the distance, a storm was approaching. La Haia hesitated momentarily, fear for the horses, especially Meadow, he was sensitive maybe he was afraid of thunder. Then she remembered they were safe in the cave, she could get them later when the man was asleep.

Still running fast, La Haia ran through the heavy rain as it plastered her hair to her head, only making her colder than she was before. Although the rain was hindering her speed she knew it would hide her tracks. When she had escaped from Neeron the last time, she'd managed to elude the trackers for four days before they'd found her. She wasn't so sure she could hide from this man for that long though. She'd have to be very careful.

Soon she arrived at a small stream, it was awash with the heavy rain that pelted down on the banks. Without a thought she leapt into the stream to climb up the other side. A rumble and rushing sound came from up stream and a wall of water came straight at her, collecting her amongst the broken branches and rocks the flash flood contained.

La Haia could feel someone's mouth upon hers moments before she vomited and coughed up bits of leaf and stream. She could feel his hand rubbing her back, he'd found her. Twisting around, she kneed him in the groin and raked her fingernails across her cheek. She fought with him, she couldn't be caught again. Freedom was too fresh in her memory. He grabbed her arm, it was the arm that had been branded, he held her down on the rock squeezing tight. Her vision clouded red then black and then she was unconscious.

It was warm and dry – La Haia snuggled into the warm blankets then the memories all came in a rush. He was there, standing right beside her. He lifted the sleeve on her arm, he was going to punish her for escaping. La Haia lashed out at the man, scratching his face and neck, but he was ready for her and held her down with his body. She had trouble breathing as his shoulder buried itself into her neck. Twisting around she got her head free and bit down on hard on his shoulder. His body went ridged beneath her, but still held onto her outstretched arm. A flash of grey as the brander was placed on her skin. There was some tingling and then softness. He was removing the brand, she released her grip on his shoulder and watched as he removed the cross lines on her arm and then continued to remove the long line that ran down the centre of her arm. He was freeing her.

2008

"Was I really that scary?" I asked.

Sam twisted around so she was facing me, her hands placed down flat on my chest. Tears had filled her eyes.

"I didn't understand. I'd known nothing else but fear and brutality."

"I'm sorry, I scared you. I thought you were dead and when I saw you I immediately thought of the replicator Carter and then when . . ." I couldn't say anymore.

Sam laid the side of her head on my chest and slipped her arms around me. I sighed.

"It is no matter now, Jack."

"But it does matter," I said quite loudly and she quickly sat up and looked at me.

She shook her head, "No it doesn't."

"I nearly lost you again; you weren't breathing when I pulled you out of that stream." I stared at her for a moment. "It would have been my fault if you had died." My voice broke on the last word and I stood up, moving away from her.

"Jack." I ignored her plea.

The feelings were too strong, the memories of that day. Joy filled with pain of nearly losing her again and now . . . We were trapped amongst the Dr. Moreau's of this world. What had they done to us? We didn't know, and wouldn't know until Janet could test us and find out. What had they done to Sam? My chest hurt with the thought.

"Jack." Her voice was soft and right by my ear.

I turned slightly and looked at her. "I don't blame you for what happened. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be there or worse. I don't think I'd have stayed there, I'd have run away and when Neeron had caught me he would have killed me.

I turned away and walked over to the kitchen sink and leaned on the edge. I wanted to vomit. Maybe I should hide in the bathroom.

"What Baal did to you . . ." I stopped, I couldn't to talk. Too much pent up emotion was ready to burst out. I wanted to hit something, someone – Baal or Neeron. I didn't care.

I felt a firm hand on my back. "Jack, I don't blame you. I'm all right."

My body shook, it was bubbling to the surface; four years worth of loss and despair - for both of us. If I'd known she was alive I would have searched, maybe I would have found her while she was captured by Baal before . . . The recent memory of her tale made my body shudder. I couldn't contain it anymore; I had to get out of there, away from Sam away from my shame.

"Tzak." Sam slid around between me and the sink. I pushed away from the counter and looked down at her. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Her voice was soft, "Come here." I wrapped my arms around her slight shoulders her face buried into my neck. Before I'd comforted her in times of sadness, but this time she comforted me as I joined her as tears leaked from my eyes and I buried my face into her hair.

Slowly the shaking turned to a slight tremble. The last time I'd felt like this was after the replicator Carter had duped me. This time it was just reaction, not loss. Sam was here, the real Sam - in my arms. She pulled away from me slightly and looked at me searching my eyes for something. I reached up a hand and scrubbed at my face. Sam touched my hand and pulled it away and let it drop by my side. With a tentative hand she pushed some hair away from my eye. It needed cutting.

Blind to anything but Sam, I bent down and captured her mouth with mine. Her hand slid around the back of my head and pulled me down to her. All sadness and pain had fled. Nothing else mattered and all I wanted to do was capture the moment and hold it until the end of all time.

"Jack! Sam." We're home. Daniel burst into the apartment with his usual exuberance.

I broke away from Sam, but she still clung to me leaning her head on my chest.

"Oh! Sorry." His mouth gaped open.

"A bit late now, Daniel," I growled.

Sam giggled against my chest. I squeezed her with one arm. Janet smirked at Sam.

"Excuse me," I gave Sam another squeeze and made my way to the bathroom. I needed to wash my face before those two had any idea what had been going on with me. There were some things that I just didn't want to share with anyone, including Sam. I stared at the mirror, no, not including Sam. My face softened. She had got under my skin years ago and now there was nothing to hold us back. I was retired. I watched as my face broke out into a huge grin. There was nothing to hold us back.

I washed my face and strolled back out into the dining room. Daniel was setting the table and Janet and Sam had disappeared into their room. Girl-talk most probably. I shrugged off the thought, I didn't believe that Sam would betray anything personal.

"So, Daniel what's for lunch?"

"Ooooh grey goop. Or you could have grey gloop or even grey glop. Totally your choice." He grinned.

I grinned back. It wasn't hard not to smile at the moment. I had plans. First, get off this colourless planet and then . . . I smiled secretly to myself.

The following day, all five of us were dressed ready to explore the city. Joe looked a bit brighter these days, maybe it was the prospect of going home, but I thought it was more the fact that we were here with him. It gave him a bit of hope and more importantly fun. The poor man had spent all these years with these boring people who had absolutely no idea what the word fun meant.

Sam had the plans for the building where the Stargate was housed tucked into the waist band of her trousers. Joe had already passed over the screw driver and some packing tape he'd smuggled out of where he worked. Everyone was searched thoroughly when they arrived and when they left. I had heard him say something to Sam about an open window so who knows.

We hopped on the monorail and travelled to the library, even in the rail car we daren't talk about anything to do with the escape. Everyone already knew their jobs and we couldn't risk anyone overhearing now. We were too close.

Once we arrived at the library, I introduced everyone to Telaran. "We want to look at your books," I announced.

He nodded. "Help yourself."

Sam led the way down the aisles of books to the prepared table. Everyone sat at the table. Beside Sam's seat were two books on the floor. She bent down and removed her ankle bracelet from her ankle and placed it carefully onto the books. I handed over the tape and she taped the locator to the books. Carefully, she stood up and knelt down beside my ankle and did the same thing. It didn't take long for everyone to be freed from the locators. My foot felt lighter with it gone, it was good.

Daniel spread the pictures of the animals over the table top. I had been busy. Although I did notice no one commented on how good the drawings were. At least they didn't look like Sam's first attempt – stick legs and she coloured outside the lines.

Only one hour after we'd arrived we trouped back out the building. I hesitated by the door, I didn't want to leave Telaran behind, but it just wasn't possible to bring him with us. We'd be crawling through air ducts and a man in a wheel chair couldn't do that.

"We've forgotten something," I explained.

He grinned and looked pointedly at my ankle. "I can see that." He winked. "Good luck."

I stood there hesitant to speak. "We'd, but . . ."

"It's all right. I'll see you when you come back."

I reached across and shook his hand. "Thank you, Telaran, for everything."

I turned on my heel and followed the others out the door.

It was the middle of the afternoon and we were stuck half way down an air duct. I knew I shouldn't have chosen the grey glop yesterday. Sam was on point and I was watching everyone's six. Personally, I'd have preferred Sam just in front of me and not Daniel, but then sometimes you can't choose whose six you are behind.

"Sir, it is too narrow down here, you'll have to back up."

Ignoring the 'sir' I shuffled backwards, it wasn't easy. "How far back do I have to go?" I asked trying hard not to catch my knuckles on some rivets.

"About, ten yards."

I groaned.

Soon we had shuffled back to where Sam wanted us to go. Fortunately, for Daniel's safety he'd only booted me twice in the face; once more and I'd have removed his boots without undoing the laces.

What I didn't like was I had to crawl backwards the furthest so Sam could still take point as she apparently was the only person that knew where to go; at this point in time I was beginning to seriously doubt that she knew where we were let alone where we were going.

"I do know where I'm going, sir," she said pointedly as though she could read my mind.

That woman knows me too well.

I'm sure I saw a smirk on Daniel's face.

Two hours later we arrived at another panel. The first one on the street had taken Sam no time at all to dismantle and deactivate the security beams. How she'd removed the ankle bracelets I didn't know either, we had a lot to thank Telaran for. That computer was a find.

This took her longer and there was room for me to wriggle up beside her. "What's the problem?"

"I'm not sure, the code is different I think."

"What are we trying to do?"

"Deactivate the defence mechanisms surrounding the Stargate."

I nodded. "You'll do fine, Carter just fine." I patted her shoulder. She shrugged it off irritably. I raised my eyebrow at her. She sighed and let her head hang for a moment.

"I'm trying to concentrate, Jack," she admonished.

"Sorry." I scuttled back a bit and let her do her thing. Yep things were definitely different. Back when I was a colonel and she was a major she'd have put up with me interrupting her thinking. I liked the change and I grinned to myself in the dim light.

"Done, we're clear," she announced.

"Where to now?" I asked.

"Back the way we've come."

Fortunately, there was enough room for everyone to turn around, so we were all in the right order. My knees and elbows were almost raw from the crawling and my knuckles had got caught a couple of times on the rivets leaving smears of blood along the smooth grey walls. I was a bit concerned that there was lighting in the ducts, but Sam assured me that this was normal, so that if anything had to be fixed they didn't need to worry about bringing lighting with them. I just hoped that it wasn't the day to change the light bulbs.

After another hour of this crawling and the pressure beginning to build on my bladder we finally arrived to the last panel. Here there was room to crouch beside the face plate. With the procured screw driver, Sam removed the panel. Behind it was a grill and through the grill we could see the Stargate. There wasn't any sign of guards or people, which was strange as this was quite busy during the day.

I looked across at Daniel. "You've got the address?" I asked him.

"Yup." He clutched the paper in his hand.

I'd chosen the desert planet we'd taken Meadow to before. I didn't want the Aschen following us to any of the planets where our friends lived. Sam made short work of the panel grid; she lifted it down gently and placed it on the floor. I carefully hopped out onto the smooth surface of the floor. We were weapon less so we didn't want to come across any guards.

I waved everyone into the room and Sam placed the grid back up against the frame. She stuck it there with the Aschen version of sticky tac. We'd plastered the walls with it back at the apartment when we'd put up some of my arts of work. We'd left them there; I hoped they had fun trying to remove the sticky tac from the surface of the wall. Not that they ever had fun.

Daniel scooted over to the DHD and punched in the address, immediately the sirens went off. No one came rushing into the room brandishing weapons. I looked over at Sam.

"I locked the doors." She looked smug.

The wormhole billowed out into the room. "Right, everyone get going. Janet you take Joe first, Daniel then Sam."

Janet pushed Joe through the event horizon, with Daniel following closely. I felt naked without a weapon and I could tell that Sam felt uneasy as we watched the entry through the locked doors. We could hear weapons firing at the doors as the Aschen tried to get in.

"Sam go," I yelled and pushed her through the blue puddle.

"O'Neill!" It was Mollem, his face was red, he was angry. I gave him a quick wave and dived through the Stargate, just in time as I heard the staccato of bullets fired from a P-90. I hoped no one was in front of the gate at the other end.

Unfortunately, there was one person in front of the gate as two bullets ripped through. The first one I felt the wind as is passed by my ear the second I felt as it lodged itself into my side and I fell onto the sandy steps.

"Janet!" Sam was scared, I could hear it in her voice.

"I can't stop the bleeding, Sam. Here hold this."

A sharp pain in my side.

"Janet, you have to, or he'll die."

"You don't have to tell me that, Daniel, don't you think I know." Janet was angry.

"We have to go to the SGC."

"We can't Sam, we don't have a GDO." Daniel was agitated, I could feel my head move as he pushed something under it.

"I know," Janet sounded a bit more hopeful. "We could go to Ellatha, but I don't know the address."

"I do," said Sam.

I heard the familiar clunking sounds as someone dialled the Stargate. We were going to see Alexander, with Janet's help they'd fix me up. I drifted off to sleep.

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