Chapter Text
‘Hey.’ Daniel tapped lightly on the window to get Sam’s attention and, even though there was no way she could hear him through the thick glass, he couldn’t help adding; ‘Can you let us in?’
Why she was in there, apparently not held by anyone, was beyond him. The explanation would prove to be interesting, he was sure. It always was, in their job. Sam’s head came up and she turned to look at him. Daniel made a gesture of opening the door and fully expected her to come over and open it, but she didn’t move. No, she did move, but only to look back down at the controls in front of her.
It must be automatic, Daniel reasoned; she’d open it from the controls.
He waited. 30 seconds. A minute. Two.
Daniel tapped on the window again, with more force, and raised his eyebrows at her when she looked over at him. The assessing look was… wrong, it didn’t suit her at all. It was familiar, though.
It took a moment to place it, but when he did…
She looked like Jolinar, but no, not even that was quite right. The resemblance was far closer to the replicator version of Sam that had probed his mind. He suddenly felt cold.
‘Sam?’ he mouthed at her, cautiously.
Her eyebrows shot up, the look on her face suddenly morphing into a thoroughly amused smirk. Slowly and deliberately she touched her right hand to her forehead and snapped off a sloppy salute that reminded Daniel far more of Jack than of her.
But no, again, that wasn’t right. Not of Jack, but of the electrical entity that had taken control of Sam, and had made his gesture back at him. The message was clear; ‘No, not Sam.’
It left Daniel with the worrying question; if not Sam, then who?
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‘This might not be such a good place to do this,’ Daniel observed, indicating the sprawled out town with a discrete hand gesture.
Sam agreed; she’d been hoping for an uninhabited planet, or at least a low population density. This… this just increased the potential for casualties to an unacceptable level. ‘Cam?’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Cam stopped just inside the town, frowning. ‘We’ll stay, have a look around, but we’re gonna have to be careful not to draw too much attention. Don’t want to spook the guy before we’ve even found him.’
According to the tracking system for his locator beacons, this planet was the location of the last Ba’al clone. SG-1 had been running join operations with the Tok’ra and the free Jaffa to catch them all, and that planet was the first that had a significant population. Sam didn’t like it at all. It would be bad enough with the potential for a firefight but with Ba’al’s reputation with explosives… if Ba’al realised they were there, Sam didn’t want to imagine the consequences.
‘Are you sure?’ Daniel shifted uncomfortably. ‘He might move on to somewhere less crowded.’
‘No, he won’t.’ Vala came up to lean on Daniel. ‘Do you really think he chose a densely populated place by accident?’
‘He knows we’ll be coming.’ Sam scanned the area. ‘That’s even worse.’
More than just explosives, Ba’al was known for concealed explosives given as gifts and that was a talent that could all too easily be adapted to their current situation.
‘Right,’ Cam said, adjusting his grip on his weapon. ‘Well we can’t just leave him here, so we’ll just scout around and keep a very low profile, okay?’
‘Mmm,’ said Daniel, ‘because we’ve been so good at that in the past.’
Sam chewed on her lip; they did tend to stand out, but it wasn’t too bad on that planet, not with the bustle of different people passing them. Although it was probably a good thing Teal’c had been tied up with a High Council meeting, because the Jaffa was nothing if not recognisable.
Cam waved a frustrated hand. ‘Just…’ He fixed Vala with a stare, ‘don’t draw attention.’
‘Hey, why are you looking at me?’ Vala protested, but Cam set off walking further in the village, so she swung around to Daniel. ‘Why was he looking at me?’
Sam watched as Daniel made a show out of rolling his eyes and following Cam, she grinned at Vala.
‘I blend in better than you do,’ Vala said, her lower lip sticking out in a pout.
‘Yep,’ said Sam brightly, because Vala was absolutely right about that. Maybe not in the SGC uniform though.
Vala paused. ‘Oh. Well at least someone appreciates my skills.’
Sam walked with her after Cam and Daniel and wondered how they were going to ask for information. The chances of just looking around and finding Ba’al were slim to none, not when he knew they’d be searching for him. Cam was heading for the nearest bar, which was always a good place to get information, but not always discretely and Ba’al would have figured that out pretty quickly.
‘If we’re tracking the clones, then he – all versions of him – will have been as well,’ Vala said as they walked. ‘Since he now knows he’s the last, isn’t it just a little bit possible he’ll have failsafes here to stop us getting to him?’
‘Yeah,’ Sam said, making an effort to look at every face in the crowd around them, just in case. ‘I thought we agreed that was all the people around.’
‘We’ll keep an eye out for failsafes,’ Cam promised.
‘No.’ Daniel was shaking his head. ‘I really think we should head back and rethink-‘
‘The false god Qetesh!’ Someone shouted at the top of their lungs.
‘I found the trap,’ said Vala, stepping closer to Sam and Daniel.
‘Okay, we should definitely leave now.’ Daniel caught hold of Vala’s arm.
‘The false god Qetesh and her followers!’ yelled a different voice and this time Sam could see someone pointing straight at them.
‘Yeah, we’re leaving now.’ Cam had his gun raised and Sam followed suit. It was looking like warning shots were going to be necessary and if it escalated from there…
She led the way back, walking with her weapon raised as they shuffled back as a group with Vala at the centre. They looked, she was all too aware, like a group of devout followers protecting their God. A crowd was gathering and Sam knew that it wouldn’t be long before they could no longer keep moving as they were. Particularly not since she was beginning to see some weapons.
‘Hand gun at two o’clock,’ she said quietly to Cam. ‘And I’m pretty sure that’s a zat near the rug stall.’
‘Oh yeah, I see it.’
Daniel grimaced. ‘I really think we should pick up the pace, guys.’
‘I’m all for making a run for it,’ Vala agreed.
Cam scanned the crowd, searching for any more weapons pointed at them. ‘We could just explain to them-‘
‘I’ve tried that! It doesn’t work.’ Vala waved her zat in the direction of the stargate. ‘Can we run now?’
‘Too late.’ Sam kept her P90 raised, but she couldn’t keep moving; not without getting way too close to a group of angry looking people.
‘Fantastic.’ Cam spoke over his shoulder; ‘Jackson, you want to try talking to these guys?’
‘Sure. Why not.’ Daniel blew out a breath and raised his voice. ‘This isn’t the false god Qetesh, this is Vala, and I promise you we’re not followers of any Goa’uld. We’ll leave now, peacefully, I give you my word.’
‘Lies!’ It was the first man again, Sam was certain of it. ‘We were warned you would come! Warned that you would use your lies to take back your old slaves who have sought refuge here!’
‘Warned,’ Cam muttered, exchanging a glance with Sam. ‘I’ll bet they were.’
Another person shouted; ‘Hand over the false god and you will not be harmed!’
‘You will not be harmed,’ Vala said under her breath. ‘What about me?’
‘No false gods here, nothin’ to hand over.’ Cam shrugged. ‘So I guess we’ll just be on our way…’
A zat blast narrowly missed Daniel and Cam cursed, firing his P90 into the ground. Sam took her cue and did the same, causing the people in front of her to jump back in alarm. Not far enough back to be of any use though and there was no free path. Sam could see more people around them raising weapons…
‘Run,’ Cam ordered.
Sam did, making sure her team was close behind her, but she was forced to run directly at people, not all of who scattered. Gunshots echoed around and she knew that there’d been more than just the one hand gun; Ba’al had chosen a planet where the people were well armed. Shit shit. She elbowed someone out of the way, making a point to use her zat gun. The people there did not deserve to die just because Ba’al had chosen to manipulate them.
And most of them weren’t being hostile, just struggling to get away from the fighting. Unfortunately, that just made everything harder.
Someone slammed into her and Sam fended them off, but only Vala was behind her; fighting off someone who wanted to capture (or kill) ‘Qetesh’ personally. She could see Cam and Daniel trying to fight their way back to them, but they were too far… Sam realised they were going to have to get out and regroup later.
She took back her earlier thought; she wished Teal’c was there to watch her back. She really wished Teal’c was there.
‘Sam!’ Vala tugged hard on her sleeve, pulling Sam back just in time as a bullet whizzed past in front of her. Vala continued as if she hadn’t just saved Sam’s life; ‘I see the tree line! If we sprint…’
‘Go,’ Sam replied, regaining her balance and shoving Vala ahead of her. It was Vala (or more accurately Qetesh) they wanted and Sam thought blocking their line of fire might help, even if some of the people clearly had no problem with shooting her too.
Vala bolted towards the trees and Sam followed at a sprint, the even ground helping her keep a steady pace. She really hoped Cam and Daniel had got themselves clear as well, but she couldn’t risk turning around, she needed to-
Electricity tingled over her as the zat blast hit and the last thing Sam saw before hitting the ground was Vala disappearing into the trees.
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Sam woke to the sound of the ‘gate being dialled and immediately tried to sit up. Rope bit into her wrists and Sam grimaced as she looked down to see her hands tied in front of her. Small mercies; she wasn’t dead, but she had no idea what the angry ex-Qetesh followers would want with her. Or where they thought they were going.
Sitting up – with difficulty-, she watched as the wormhole formed and a small group of people from the town converged on her.
‘Stand, servant of Qetesh,’ one man said, pointing a zat at her.
‘Listen,’ Sam said, making no attempt to stand, ‘Qetesh is dead. The woman I travelled through here with was her host, but she isn’t anymore and she wasn’t responsible for Qetesh’s crimes.’ Someone grabbed the back of her collar and yanked her to her feet. Sam sighed. ‘The man who told you Qetesh was coming here lied to you and if you could show me where he is I-‘
‘He arrives now,’ said a woman in front of her and Sam twisted to try and look behind her.
Sure enough, a single person approached the gate, and while the simple clothes weren’t familiar the arrogant stride was. There was a false God on the planet, but it sure as hell wasn’t Vala.
‘What are you doing?’ Ba’al asked the lead woman as he drew closer, ignoring Sam as he eyed the open wormhole.
‘We will take this follower of Qetesh to Uetania where we will lure the false God into a trap,’ the woman replied. ‘I know of many warriors there who used to be her slaves. Will you join us?’
‘No.’ Ba’al shook his head. ‘I will remain here for the moment.’
‘You mean,’ said Sam spitefully, ‘that you’ll wait until we’ve gone through and then dial somewhere else.’
Ba’al glanced over at her disdainfully, but before he could reply a zat blast sizzled the air between them and he jumped back in alarm. Someone shouted in the distance and Sam could see Cam and Daniel (she hoped Vala was safe) running towards them, weapons raised.
‘Hmm,’ Ba’al said, while Sam’s captors scrambled for the gate, dragging her with them. ‘Perhaps I will accompany you to Uetania.’
Sam would have laughed at him if she hadn’t been fighting to keep her feet. If she could just slow down their retreat, then maybe Cam and Daniel would reach them in time…. The stargate loomed in front of her and Sam threw her weight backwards, only for the person she hadn’t known was right behind her to shove her through the open wormhole.
The air on the other side settled on her like a blanket as she staggered out and Sam took in the heavy jungle surrounding the Stargate. The gate closed behind her and Sam winced; now all she could hope for was that either Cam or Daniel had reached the DHD in time to see the address.
‘That is not Qetesh,’ announced a new voice and Sam noticed they had a welcoming committee. A heavily armed – with a variety of weapons – welcoming committee.
‘Qetesh is dead!’ Sam called, trying to salvage a situation that was probably way past saving. ‘She-‘
The slap stung her cheek and cut Sam off mid-sentence.
‘This is one of her still loyal followers,’ said the woman who seemed to be in charge. ‘The false God has few left and is not travelling by ship, we believed you would be able to set up an ambush when she came to retrieve her slave.’
Ba’al was quiet, Sam realised, turning to try and see him. Too quiet; the Goa’uld almost always had something to say. She could see him, on the edge of the group, head down with his eyes fixed firmly on the ground, almost as if…. Sam narrowed her eyes; Ba’al hadn’t wanted to go through the gate and now everything about him said he didn’t want to draw attention. Almost as if someone might recognise him.
‘They did bring the false God Ba’al,’ she called loudly, looking directly at him as his head snapped up and he stared at her accusingly.
All eyes turned on her, and then followed her gaze to Ba’al. The instant recognition in the eyes of their welcoming group was hard to miss.
‘Ah,’ Ba’al said and when his left hand came up, he was wearing a ribbon device.
Sam dived away from him as a blast of energy rippled through the air, sending people flying as they tried to raise their own weapons. She was furious with herself; of course he was armed, but the rattle of gunfire told her he wasn’t going to be able to hold them all off with a single ribbon device. He clearly knew that too, because as Sam twisted to look at him all she saw was the sun glinted off the ribbon device as he fled into the jungle.
It wasn’t easy getting to her feet with her hands tied – literally – but Sam managed it, fully intending to take the distraction and run in the opposite direction to Ba’al. A hand fastened around her upper arm before she could get around to the running part of her plan and she noticed that the weapons, raised at Ba’al, were now all pointed at her. Damn.
She hated having to wait for rescue.
A man, a leader from the way he carried himself, studied her. He called over his shoulder; ‘Take her to Corrol, we may still be able to set a trap for Qetesh. Tell him what has happened here and that I lead the hunt.’
The hunt. For Ba’al presumably. Sam scowled to herself as she was led down a narrow path; Ba’al had been well-prepared and her team… hadn’t. It wasn’t even that they hadn’t been expecting a trap, they had, but not the specific trap he’d set. Very un-Goa’uld like to lie low in a town, not leading anything, or anyone… then again Ba’al had proven himself a little more creative than some of the other Goa’uld.
She hoped they found him. It would be a total pain to try and track him down again; she wouldn’t put it past him to figure something out with the locator beacon, if he was given enough time.
Damn, damn, damn. The last Ba’al clone. The last of the system lords, after a decade of fighting them, and they’d screwed up. At least Ba’al’s little scheme hadn’t actually succeeded in getting Vala killed. That was something.
By the time they reached their destination Sam’s shirt was damp with the humidity. Tropical climates were great, she supposed, if all you were doing was going on holiday, not so great for forced marches as a captive.
‘Corrol!’ a man called as he dragged Sam into a small stone building. ‘I bring a follower of Qetesh!’
Frankly, Sam would have thought it would be more important to first mention the false God currently loose on their planet.
A well-muscled man of medium height approached – Corrol presumably – and stared at her as if she was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe. He looked up with his eyes narrowed. ‘You were supposed to bring the false God to face her punishment.’
Sam’s captor swallowed. ‘We would have, but the false God Ba’al is alive and he prevented us from succeeding in our capture of Qetesh. He also slipped through the Stargate behind us, Diviak hunts him as we speak.’
Automatically, Sam opened her mouth to correct him, then closed it again. Despite what Jack had seemed to think, antagonising her captors would get her nowhere, and he definitely wasn’t going to admit to having been tricked by Ba’al.
Corrol stared. ‘Raicia, Ba’al is dead. You know this.’
Her captor – Raicia – shook his head. ‘He is here.’
‘I watched him die.’ Corrol seized the front of Raicia’s shirt. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’
Oh boy. Sam wondered if this was one of the reasons Ba’al had cloned himself; to appear truly immortal.
‘Ba’al cloned himself,’ she found herself saying, and grimaced as both angry gazes turned on her. ‘Um, I mean, he made copies of himself. Ba’al is here, but not the same Ba’al that you-‘
‘Silence.’ Corrol slapped her and Sam shut up, her cheek stinging from the blow. He turned back to Raicia. ‘Find the intruder, whoever he is, and bring him to me. In the meantime…’ He sneered at Sam. ‘Throw this one into a cell, we will see if Qetesh comes for her worshipper.’
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In a way, Sam decided she preferred high tech cells to simple stone ones. Hers fitted into the latter category and meant that escape was just that little bit less likely. The lock on the solid door was on the outside and Sam couldn’t have got to it even if she’d had something to pick it with. Electronic locks were so much easier, at least then she had a chance at finding a way to trip a circuit or guess at a lock combination… particularly as the Goa’uld seemed to favour six symbol keypads.
Sam huffed out a breath and leant against the wall. Difficult or not, she was going to have to find a way out; rescue just wasn’t an option. There was a strong possibility her team didn’t even know where she was, but there was an equally good chance they did. Even if neither Cam or Daniel had seen the gate address, they could have found something out from the villagers.
No, the real problem was that if they did come looking for her they’d be walking straight into the trap set for Vala, which would be even worse if Vala insisted on joining the rescue mission, which she would.
Of course, even if she could get out of her cell, she needed to get through the stargate, which would be guarded because they knew Ba’al was hanging around…
That thought was pushed to the back of her mind; she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
Until then… well she couldn’t get out the door and the walls were solid brick, but the roof looked like a different story.
The roof, while also pretty well made, was her best bet. Constructed with what looked like dried reed or thatch (Sam really wasn’t sure), if she could get up there she was pretty confident she could get herself out; the wooden support beams looked down right rotten. Actually getting up there…
At least they’d untied her hands (a rooky mistake, but she wasn’t complaining).
Sam examined the stone walls; climbable, but high enough that she was going to regret it if she got something wrong. That was, well, not fine exactly, but she’d done rock climbing before and it there really wasn’t any other way out. Not without trying to trick a guard into opening the door, and then she’d still be stuck with two-on-one odds for a best case scenario.
She’d call that plan B.
Make sure you get out before you reach plan F, said a voice at the back of her mind which sounded suspiciously like Jack O’Neill.
Jack. Who’d flown back to the SGC so he could attend Ba’al’s extraction ceremony, maybe Teal’c had finished up with his meeting and joined him.
Jack. Who was going to be throwing a fit when Cam came back through the gate sans her and Ba’al.
Sighing, Sam selected part of the wall that looked like it provided the best hand holds, staring up as she mapped out her path up to one of the rotting support beams. Three points of contact at all times, she reminded herself as she started to climb.
It was hard going; moss made her hand holds slippery and Sam wished for a less tropical environment. Then again, she probably had the climate to thank for the beams rotting in the first place.
There was no ledge at the top of the wall for her to catch her breath, so Sam clung on and tried to figure out the physics of applying enough force to bring part of the roof down. Preferably not on her head. She could, if she reached up, get hold of the nearest of the support beams, and from there try and break one of the others.
Except she was going to have to let go with both hands to achieve it.
‘Oh boy,’ Sam muttered to herself, looking up at the beam.
Possible to do without falling? Likely. Probable? Not so much, but it wasn’t like she really had a choice. She’d do it in one movement, she decided; let go, straighten up and grab the beam. No problem. Piece of cake. Child’s play. No sweat.
Staying perched there thinking about it really wasn’t going to help.
Making sure she was leaning forward, Sam realised her hand holds… and immediately felt herself tilting backwards. Clinging back onto her old hand holds would have been admitting defeat, so Sam straightened her legs and flailed her arms above her head, trying to avoid windmill motions.
There!
The beam. She’d grazed her right hand on it and she managed to get a grip with her left… just as part of the wall gave way under her foot.
Sam snatched hold of the beam properly, and found herself dangling there.
‘Oh yeah,’ she said, feeling the rough wood bite into the palms of her hands. ‘Nothing to it.’
From there she reasoned that she could kick the next beam over and break it. If she could apply enough force. If it was rotten enough to break. And if her arms didn’t give out first.
She kept herself in pretty good shape, had to really, but pulling herself up to aim a two-footed kick at the nearest support beam was still difficult. Her feet connected with a thud that made her wince, even as she realised she hadn’t hit it hard enough. Damn.
Taking a deep breath, Sam pulled herself up and kicked out again with all her strength. She was rewarded with a satisfying crack even as her arm muscles started to burn. Hopefully one beam would be enough to collapse part of the roof, because she wouldn’t have time to try another before the noise brought guards running.
She kicked out a third time, the force of the kick jarring through her.
This time the dull noise registered as way too close and Sam froze.
The beam she was kicking wasn’t breaking at all. It was the beam she was holding on to.
Sam froze, and slowly looked up. The smart thing, she knew, would be to let go and roll to break her fall, in other words, to quit while she was ahead. Quitting wasn’t going to get her out though and she had just found a proven method to bring down one of the roof beams.
Her arms protesting in an ache that radiated down her back and into her core muscles, Sam pulled herself up and lashed out at the other beam again. Creeeeaaaak.
‘Ooph,’ she gasped as the beam began to buckle under the force and she dropped down a few inches. The beam continued to groan, a sound that echoed with the undertones of wood breaking.
Okay. It was definitely time to let go.
She swung as she released her grip, partly to get out of the danger zone, partly to allow herself the momentum to roll as the ground came rushing up to meet her. There was no time to worry about the pain blossoming through her ankle; as Sam scrambled to her feet the compromised beam gave way under the weight of the roof.
The wooden beam crashed to the floor and Sam pressed herself against the far wall as dried reed rained down.
There wasn’t time to check whether the rest of the roof was stable, as escape plans went, hers wasn’t particularly subtle and Sam was willing to bet there wasn’t a single person within a mile radius who hadn’t heard something. She dived over the remnants of the roof and scaled the wall… even as she heard the door swing open behind her.
She didn’t pause to look over her shoulder, but from the surprised curse Sam figured that whatever her guard had been expecting, the destruction he’d just walked in on hadn’t even been in the same ballpark. Good.
Jumping to the ground in the middle of a hostile town that she’d just put on high alert seemed like a bad idea, so Sam leaped to the next roof, grabbing hold of handfuls of reed as she nearly slid off. It would, she thought as she found her feet, be a really good time for her team to show up with a distraction. Except that the whole point of risking such an attention grabbing escape had been because she couldn’t wait for her team to get there.
She dropped to the floor on the other side of the second building, again rolling to break her fall as her ankle throbbed. People were shouting furiously and Sam was up and sprinting for the jungle, hopefully before anyone had seen her.
Making her way through the tangle of trees and vines (and spider webs) was harder than Sam would have liked, and noisier, and damn it she could hear someone else approaching.
Not from the direction she was coming from, which was sort of good, but since everyone on the planet was a hostile… Yeah. Not great, but it only sounded like one person and there was a good chance whoever it was didn’t know Sam was free.
Sam crept towards the sound, ducking behind a tree when she was satisfied they were heading towards her. She counted slowly to ten, then dived out from her cover, catching sight of the uniform that matched that of her guard as she lashed out. Her blow caught him on the side of the head and he dropped with a grunt of pain. Sam wasted no time in following up the moving, wrenching his weapon from his grasp and leaving the man unconscious.
Now she had a weapon.
Which she had to use a second later when a second soldier (presumably partnered with the guy she’d just attacked) came out of nowhere and decided to lunge for her rather than draw a weapon in close quarters. Sam could understand that; she didn’t even have time to raise hers before he slammed into her, driving the breath from her lungs.
She fired anyway, and her attacker fell back with a yell. Sam didn’t wait for him to hit the ground; she hit the side of his head in an identical move to the first soldier. It worked just as well the second time.
Sam winced when she saw the wound on his leg, but didn’t have time to bind it… and he was technically the enemy, even if it was only because of a misunderstanding. Taking his gun too, Sam moved off again, listening carefully this time to make sure there wasn’t a third soldier.
Sam glanced up at the sky to regain her bearings and headed towards the gate, at a slower pace than before. She was still seriously outnumbered, but Sam was happier outnumbered and armed then outnumbered and unarmed. She seemed to have made a clean getaway for once, but that could just be because they were looping around to guard the gate, or rather, post more people around the gate, instead of wasting more men looking for her. After all, it was the only escape route.
Sam hadn’t seen any evidence that they had a stolen ship or two hanging around.
The jungle started to thin out and Sam realised she was approaching the clearing around the stargate. Feeling sweat trickle down between her shoulder blades, Sam slowed her pace further and tried to calm her breathing. Dropping to the floor, Sam army crawled to the edge of the clearing, keeping an ear out for anyone approaching.
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