Category: Sam and Jack romance/angst, Team/family angst

Spoilers: Directly for 6.12 Unnatural Selection.

Content Warnings: Heavy angst regarding replicator torture!

Summary: SG-1 have been asked to help out the Asgard with a little replicator problem.

Episode – 6.12 Unnatural Selection

Sam was not too sure how her day could get much worse. It had started oddly enough when her bosses had seen fit to agree to take a film crew around the brand new, not yet finished, Prometheus ship. She had sensed something wrong from the outset, but mainly because she believed it was the wrong move to allow civilians onto a state of the art spaceship. The fact that the film crew had turned out to be under cover ex-NID agents had simply been the icing on top of the cake. Sam could have survived the hostage taking by going along with it, but she had stumbled upon their plan and for her own safety she had ended up locked in a storage cupboard which was not on a pressurised deck. With only seconds to spare, Sam had managed to get off of deck seven and was luckily rescued by Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c just as the NID film crew had stumbled upon her again. The Prometheus was now back under the control of SG-1, but due to the unfinished status of the ship, Sam had no idea where in space they were. Soon after revealing this to the others, Thor had arrived and Sam had thought this was going to be the moment the bad day would get better. Unfortunately, Thor needed SG-1's help before he could simply rescue them.

That would involve the Prometheus heading into replicator controlled space to get to the Asgard home world. Sam was not sure that she was ready for that kind of a mission. Ever since becoming pregnant, off world missions for Sam had always been relatively simple ones without much risk. Her simple mission to give a tour to a film crew had almost led to her death and she was concerned about a mission into such dangerous territory. An order was an order though and Sam needed to help make the galaxy a safe place for her daughter.

"Hang on a minute, Thor, old buddy. I mean, firstly this isn't my ship. I really should ask my superiors."

"I can arrange that on route, Colonel O'Neill, but we must leave immediately. It will take significantly longer for my ship to tow yours to Asgard space."

"Hold up! We don't have any food or provisions." O'Neill's protest seemed to make Thor reconsider and a moment later an image of Earth appeared on the view-screen.

"That can be arranged," Thor answered. "The other humans on board have all been transported to the surface and I have obtained weaponry, sustenance and clothing for the four of you." Thor moved a hand as if to make a command, but O'Neill stopped him.

"Can you transport Major Carter to the surface?" Everyone turned to look at the colonel; Sam felt everyone's eyes on him. She herself felt only anger.

"Excuse me, Colonel?"

"I want you back on Earth, Major." He turned to Thor. "Can you transport Lieutenant Carpenter aboard in her place?"

"Colonel, what are you doing?"

"Giving you an order, Major. Why? Are you questioning it?" As she opened her mouth to object, O'Neill turned to Thor and nodded his head, causing the ship around her to disappear in the brightest white light.

SG – SG – SG

It had not taken the ship long to travel to Replicator infested space where they had relatively easily landed the ship on what had turned out to be a giant ball of Replicator pieces. Jack now found himself wishing back just a few hours to when he, Teal'c and Daniel had been happily eating rapidly defrosting Ben and Jerry's ice cream because now he found himself face to face with five apparently human looking Replicators. During his lifetime, Jack had seen plenty of bad days, awful days in fact, but this one was proving to be very high up on the list of bad days. What should have been a simple tour of the X303 had devolved into a good old fashioned kidnapping and near death of Sam before resulting in SG-1 and Earth's first star-ship being lost in space. When the Asgard had arrived, Jack had believed that they were going to take them all home and that the day would be over. He was looking forward to heading home and very simply spending time with his daughter and Sam. Unfortunately, it was still something that was in the future because Thor needed their help. Sometimes he regretted ever making contact with those little grey aliens; it was one thing to help out with a pesky Replicator problem, but an entirely different thing to deal with the evolved human forms.

Jack was fully aware that Sam was not going to be happy if he did ever get home after pulling rank on her in front of everyone, but given the reverse in time dilation field she would not want to be on the mission. Before leaving Thor at the edge of the time dilation field, the official figure had been that for every hour in the real world, four days went past in the Replicator world.

"Where are my manners?" the leader of the human form Replicators asked with a smile. "Two new races meeting for the first time. Welcome."

Jack eyed him with incredible suspicion as the Replicator held out a hand for him to shake. He could sense his team-mates still on alert despite the fact that all of them had lowered their weapons.

"Please, colonel," the Replicator continued. "If we intended to cause you any harm, we would have done so already. We are each perfectly capable of a lot more than you are aware."

"That's reassuring." Jack hoped that the smile on his own face was as fake as the replicator's. "And it's not exactly our first meeting now, is it?"

"Jack," Daniel warned in the tone that he so often used. He knew what his younger friend wanted to say. It would involve how they should give the Replicators a chance and that they should not be judged on the spidery ones' behaviour. Just like with Reese, Jack and Daniel's opinions differed greatly and there was no way that he was going to give these guys an opening. The sooner that they fixed the time dilation device and got out of the dilation field the better, and Jack was not going to be distracted by alien machine pleasantries.

"Daniel," Jack replied in the irritated tone which he saved for Daniel and these types of occasions.

Daniel appeared to not listen as he leant across Jack and took the Replicators' hand. "Daniel Jackson, pleased to meet you." Jack watched the Replicator as they shook hands and he saw absolutely nothing in the robot's eyes. It was only a few seconds before Daniel started to make pained noises followed by a scream of pain. Looking down at where their hands were shaking, Jack could see that the Replicator was trying to crush Daniel's hand.

"Hey, come on, now, there's no need for that!" All three members of SG-1 made a move towards Daniel at the same time, but paused as three of the other Replicators stepped towards them. That was when it happened simultaneously to all four of them, as far as Jack was aware anyway. One of the females moved her hand towards Jack and the room was filled with screams. Despite his own pain as the hand seemed to pass directly through his skin and skull, penetrating his brain, Jack was also sure that he could even hear Teal'c scream.

For the interrogation/torture head to my website as that is the only place it is being posted elisemarie (dot) co (dot) uk. There are two chapters there; one involving Daniel and Teal'c, the other Carpenter and O'Neill. They are rated T-M to be on the safe side, but can be skipped.