Cliche 27 6

So Close

by Arcturus

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asa/arcturus/cliche06.php
Summary: Has SG-1's luck finally run out?

Sam was slung unceremoniously over Wave Boy's shoulder as the rings transported them to the cargo vessel. He dumped her with little care against a wall and moved to the front of the ship to watch their departure from the planet.

Sam lay trying to gather her thoughts. Closing her eyes to help control the rising panic, she brought to mind all those she loved. Her team, Cassie, dad, Janet. She wished vainly that she had been able to feel Janet's arms around her one last time.

She registered the change of engine speed, presuming they were entering a cargo bay of a Ha'tak. Pushing everything else to the back of her mind, Sam opened her eyes and prepared herself for the inevitable.

***

"Your pacing will not make the craft go faster O'Neill."

Jack turned to stare at the Jaffa, hoping for a witty riposte. Nothing came to mind.

"I know T; it's just the thought of what they might do to her whilst we're stuck on this rust bucket."

"I do not believe this ship has such flaws O'Neill, GeneralCarter would not have provided us with an inferior vessel."

Again Jack opened his mouth to reply, but he could think of nothing save for his second in the arms of the enemy.

***

Two of the patrol that had captured her now hauled Sam up between them. Unable to walk, she was dragged painfully from the Tel'tac and through the corridors of the larger vessel to a meeting chamber. Holding onto her under her arms they pushed her to her knees and waited for Wave Boy to explain.

"My Lords, we captured this Tau'ri trying to escape through the Chappa'ai. I believe she is responsible for the destruction of the base on the planet."

Sam glanced round the room. There were five Goa'ulds, each sat on a throne, each with a faithful lotar behind them. She did not recognize anyone. The second one on her left rose from his seat; he was dressed in a knee length leather skirt, an intricately designed breast plate and a long grey cloak. His golden locks were tied loosely behind him.

"This one woman? Responsible for all that destruction? Val'cek, you and your men will be punished for this."

The god strode to Sam and lifted her chin in his powerful hand. "Such beauty. My Lords, what shall we do with her?" he asked, addressing the others in the room.

A tall female dressed in elegant Egyptian robes stood too. "Arawn, we have already decided her fate." she spat, "the Tau'ri must be punished for her deeds. We will ensure she suffers before ending her miserable life."

Nodding regally to Val'cek, she resumed her seat. The large Jaffa rose and indicating Sam's captors to follow, left the room.

***

Time drifted. Sam transferred her weight again from her left leg, the wound throbbing painfully however she tried to stand. The Jaffa had brought her to this large cell, stripped her so she was stood in her BDU pants and regulation bra and secured her between two carved pillars, her arms stretched taut at just above shoulder height. Mercifully they had released her legs. Now she wished the gods would just get on with it. The anticipation of what she would endure was eating into her already frayed defenses; but she guessed that was part of their plan.

Once again her mind wandered to those she had left behind. Were the boys coming to rescue her? How would they ever find her? She had no idea whether the Ha'tak was still above the planet or not. She licked her lips as an unbidden image of Janet assaulted her, feeling their last short kiss once more. If she survived this, Sam promised herself that she would make things right between them again and she would be able to know the completeness of being in the doctor's arms. If she survived.

The clang of Jaffa armor brought her thoughts sharply back into focus. The gate of the cell was opened and the entourage of Goa'uld, lotars and Jaffa marched in.

***

Janet had been home nearly three hours. She sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee. It had been a hard decision to make between that and a stiff shot of whiskey. But General Hammond had only ordered her off base for six hours and Janet had thought that if she started on the alcohol she would probably not stop.

The doctor heard the front door open and then shut, closely followed by the padding of sock clad feet across the hall; Cassie. "Hey mom! How are you?" the teen chirped as she helped herself to a glass of milk from the fridge.

Janet smiled warmly, "I'm good hon, how was your day?"

Cassie started a run down of her latest antics, plonking herself in the chair opposite the brunette. She stuttered to a halt when she registered that Janet had been crying. "Mom? What's wrong?" she asked, trying hard to contain her panic; Janet rarely cried.

"Oh God, Cassie, I've made the biggest mistake of my life over Sam and now I don't know if I'll ever get her back."

Cassie hid her shock at the confession well. She had done everything she could to support her mom, just as Sam had asked her, even though it tore her up to know what the blonde had been through. So maybe here was an opening to help Janet see that they really were meant to be together. "Hey, you know that's not true, Sam loves you, you just have to let her know how you feel. Does this mean she might move back in?"

Cassie kicked herself mentally for sounding so eager, but needn't have worried, her questioning being lost on the doctor. Janet couldn't contain the sob that broke from her chest and in an instant she was being held in Cassie's warm arms. "Mom, what's wrong? Please tell me nothing bad has happened."

Tears ran freely down Janet's face as she recalled the conversation in the infirmary, the confirmation from Jacob that the mission was a success, the empty hollow in her stomach when Sam hadn't appeared. Brokenly she began to recount the details to her daughter, not caring if the teen heard the classified parts as well. "What if I never see her again Cass?" she wept, "I just want her back, want to put things right."

Cassie shushed her reassuringly, unsure of what to say or how to deal. The rest of SG-1 would surely find their missing team member. They always did. And didn't Janet need to be at the mountain for when they arrived? The answer was right there. "Mom? Don't you need to get back? You have to be there for when SG-1 arrive. Uncle Jack will be so peeved if you aren't there to sort them out."

It worked. After several beats, Janet raised her head to look at Cassie. Her daughter was right; what was she doing here sniveling like a child when she was needed at work? Moving out of the embrace, Janet swiped at her face with the back of her hand. Then with a small smile, she reached out to brush her daughter's cheek. "You're right Cass. I need to be there. What was I thinking?"

Sniffing hard Janet straightened fully, "I'm gonna take a shower. Then make a phone call. Do you want to come to the base with me?"

The teen nodded and watched as her mom disappeared up the stairs. SG-1, all of them, would be back. It couldn't be any other way.

***

They had started with the usual questions. Who had sent her? Was she working alone? How had she got into the facility undetected? Her silence was rewarded with shocks from the pain stick and blasts from various ribbon devices.

But now, all pretence of gaining knowledge had been dropped. The pleasure on the faces of those in the room every time Sam screamed told her clearly this was about revenge and nothing else. Like all Goa'uld's, they took perverse pleasure in seeing their enemies suffer.

Currently, she was eyeing a brazier in the corner that had several metal rods heating in the coals. Her back burned from the whip they had taken to it and she could feel warm blood trickle into the waistband of her pants. The fluid came from long, shallow slices Arawn had made with his knife across her lower abdomen. Injuries calculated to cause maximum pain with minimum risk of fatality. Her wrists were raw and her shoulder muscles burned from the effort of keeping herself upright.

And now, the short oriental woman dressed in a kimono had taken a spike from the fire. She approached Sam with a smile on her lips, flashing her eyes for effect. Without hesitation she pressed the length of the glowing metal against Sam's right thigh. Pain seared through her already traumatized body; the scream escaping her lips was cracked and hoarse. She tried vainly to buck out of its reach, pulling on the chains, but her movements were severely restricted.

The spike was removed but the agony continued. Sam watched in horror as the Goa'uld replaced the first iron and took another. Without missing a beat the woman placed the newly drawn rod inches below the first. The stench of burning flesh reached Sam's senses before she passed out.

***

Teal'c maneuvered the craft so they were directly above a ring room. The tricky part would be the transporting; something that needed to be done with the cloaking device off. Jack and Daniel had taken the Tok'ra compound that Jacob had left them and were making final adjustments to their gear. "Are you prepared O'Neill?"

Jack waited for Daniel's signal before giving an affirmative nod to the Jaffa. Quickly Teal'c rose, deactivated the cloak and strode to the ring controls. "I await your return O'Neill." he said as he watched his companions disappear into the white light. Speedily moving back to the pilot's seat he redeployed the cloak and moved the vessel away from the Ha'tak, hoping they had not been detected.

***

Icy water brought Sam conscious. She was no longer upright, but the release from her bonds had done nothing to reduce the agony. Val'cek stood over her. "Get up."

Slowly Sam tried to comply. She rolled fully onto her stomach and pulled her knees under her. Leaning forward on her shaking arms she waited for her balance to stabilize. She was still for too long in the eyes of the Jaffa. His boot connected solidly with her stomach, sending her sprawling back to the floor. Several seconds passed as Sam tried to force a breath into her body, ringing in her ears telling her she was close to passing out again.

"I said get up."

She groaned as she once more pulled her legs under her, the effort required creating spots before her eyes. Leaning on her hands again she began to gather her energy to stand. This time Val'cek bent close to her head and sneered, "I want you to beg for mercy Tau'ri."

Summoning every last ounce of her will, Sam turned her head to look him in the eye. "Go to hell."

He stood abruptly and lashed his sizable foot at her. The sole of his boot impacted with her right arm just below the elbow. Sam felt and heard breaking bone before the pain tipped her back to oblivion.

***

The ring room was unoccupied. Jack and Daniel moved quickly to the door and out into the hallway. With their knowledge of Ha'tak layout, they had formulated a loose search plan, which relied on Goa'uld predictability. They had not discussed the possibility that Sam would not even be on the ship.

Together they negotiated several levels and numerous turns until Jack signaled for them to duck into an alcove. Voices could be heard coming their way. They watched silently from their secluded position as a procession of five Goa'ulds passed by. The line was long with lotars and guards flanking the gods on all sides. Jack risked looking out from their hiding place to watch the entourage as they disappeared through a door on the left a short way up the hall.

Relying on his well honed instinct, he turned to Daniel and whispered, "I think we should wait here, something tells me we're in the right place."

Daniel just nodded, having long ago accepted that Jack had a canny way of knowing when something was going to go down.

Less than five minutes later their patience was rewarded. The familiar clang of a Jaffa patrol echoed down the hallway to their left. They both tensed in anticipation of detection but it soon became clear that the guards had no suspicion of intruders. Besides, they appeared preoccupied with there prize possession.

Daniel's sharp intake of breath sounded loud in their cramped space and Jack glared at him hard. Truth was that the small noise was more than covered by the men marching past. The two in the middle dragged the unconscious major with them.

Jack's assessing eyes judged her in an instant. She had been tortured, probably in ways that he shouldn't think about right now; and her right arm appeared to bend in places it wasn't supposed to. But not only had they found her, she was not dead, and to Jack, that was the most important thing of all. As long as she still breathed they had a chance.

He watched the group move to the same door that the Goa'ulds had entered and once they had disappeared inside, signaled Daniel to follow him so they were as close to the action as they could be.

***

Val'cek knelt once more before the gods. "My Lords, I bring you the Tau'ri for her execution." He indicated Sam who was lying in a heap on the floor to his left, having not yet recovered from the last assault of her body.

The Egyptian female was the first to speak, "Get her conscious."

One of the lotars stepped forward with a cup of dark liquid in her hand. She motioned for two Jaffa to lift Sam up to her knees. Once this was achieved, she stepped close and wrenching Sam's mouth open with one hand, poured the drink down her throat. The effect was immediate, the inanimate woman's limbs tightening, her eyes snapping open and her lungs protesting at the liquid forced down them.

As her equilibrium was restored, Sam was released from the grip of the Jaffa, swaying giddily on her knees as her mind raced to catch up with her body. It took her several moments to process where she was and the inevitability of her fate.

So this was it. Sam was glad that she was going to die out here in the galaxy, doing what she loved, rather than succumbing to some disease or going senile. If she weighed it up, she had been lucky; SG-1 had defied the odds too many times, and whilst she regretted that her team was not here with her, she found comfort in knowing that they would continue to fight without her. She hoped she had made them proud.

Of course her thoughts turned to Janet and she wondered for the umpteenth time how things could have been different. Again the doctor's last words came back to her; Janet still loved her, and even though there would never be a chance now to rebuild their relationship, Sam would die with that knowledge in her heart.

The snap of a staff charging brought Sam's full attention to the room. Heket, the tall Egyptian female wielded the weapon, its business end aimed at Sam's chest. She smiled a cold, heartless smile, "Tau'ri, it has been a pleasure to watch you suffer. You little stunt has done nothing to diminish our growing power and Earth will be a priority target from now on."

Sam watched the god hesitate then, and guessed that the arrogant woman was waiting for her to beg for her life. She would have to be disappointed.

The tension was shattered as Arawn stood abruptly and moved towards Heket, "I still believe we should keep her for a host, think of all the knowledge she could offer us."

Then all hell broke loose. In seconds the five Goa'ulds were on their feet, each wanting to be heard above the others, Sam forgotten. This was obviously an argument that had been unresolved; death or host.

The major was suddenly grateful for the stimulant that was coursing through her veins. The pain of her wounds had receded and she felt alert. Seeing the chaos around her and the indecision of the Jaffa, she took her chance. Still on her knees, Sam lunged at the nearest guard, liberating his zat from the holster on his wrist. Without hesitation she began to fire, Jaffa first, then lotars, all the time backing to the door.

When she was sure the bedlam was complete, she turned and slapped at the controls, spinning back quickly to cover herself. The door hissed open behind her and this brought Heket's attention away from the dispute.
Seeing her chance narrowing, Sam whirled round and sprinted for the opening. The blast from the staff glanced off her right shoulder, propelling her forwards into the arms of a vey surprised Daniel.

Jack watched in amazement as his second appeared from the room, which was now in complete disorder. Quickly he slammed his hand to the controls, and when the doors had shut, he zatted them to buy some time. Daniel had recovered rapidly from his encounter and they were already some way in front of Jack. Sprinting to catch them, he ducked himself under Carter's free arm so she was supported between them. He radioed Teal'c and tried not to think about the improbability of them getting out alive.

***

Ten minutes later and Jack allowed himself to dwell on that improbability. They were currently hurtling through space, no gliders pursuing them and they were once more a four person team. Well, three and a half. Carter was not doing so well.

Jack watched as Daniel cajoled her into talking to him, with little effect. He understood she was badly injured and knew instinctively that they had to keep her conscious if she were to survive. Acknowledging that the soft approach was not working, he knelt beside her and ordered, "I need a debrief on your mission Carter."

Daniel glared at him, "Jack?"

O'Neill raised a warning finger to the archeologist. "Now Major."

Sam struggled to open her eyes, the effects of the drug were wearing off quickly and the pain that overwhelmed her body was intolerable. An order; she had to obey. Trying to cast her mind back to the beginning of this mission, she began. "Thor beamed me into the complex."

Several shaky breaths before she could continue. "Everything was as the Tok'ra had said."

Jack didn't miss her eyes slide to look at him or the brief twitch of her lips into a smile. "Set the timer for five minutes, decided I should activate before leaving. Less chance of detection."

"That was not the plan Carter." He growled. Sam winced at his tone, knew he would be pissed at her for changing the strategy.

"I know, but I didn't want to risk..." she was cut off as her body shuddered violently, her lungs refusing to take in air.

"Keep talking Cater."

The paralysis subsided and after Sam had managed to bring her muscles under some control she continued. "Meant I was closer to the base than I liked. Hit by shrapnel in the leg."

When they had first made it back to the ship, Jack had run his eyes over her injuries. The metal sticking from her calf seemed to be one of the lesser things to be concerned about, although the redness around the wound indicated infection. But her arm and thigh were what alarmed him the most.

Sam had stuttered to another halt, her eyes closing for a long time. "Keep her talking Daniel." Jack ordered, striding away to the front of the ship. He approached Teal'c, scanning the endless blackness out of the window. "How long Teal'c?"

"We will reach the planet in less than three minutes O'Neill."

Daniel shifted closer to Sam as her body began to slump. He cautiously maneuvered himself so he was supporting her from behind; careful to avoid the mess that was her right arm. "Sam, come on, finish your report please." he said. She stirred briefly, Daniel aware that he lacked the authority of a commanding officer. "I made it to the DHD, dialed earth, but the Jaffa were too quick behind me..."

Suddenly her body stiffened, muscles rigid above him. For several moments there was stillness and then she began to convulse violently. Daniel was incapable for several beats and then gathering his wits, he cradled her head and yelled, "Jack!"

TBC

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