Masquerade - Ch 6
Title: Masquerade - Chapter 6
Pairing: Sam/Janet
Rating: adult
Summary: SG-1 make the horrifying discovery that Janet Fraiser has been host to a Goa’uld for the past three years.
This chapter: Their first meeting with Nephthys goes less than well.
The grace of her step made it an eternity before Nephthys walked the length of the hall and stood before her devastated audience. The ashen looks on their faces sent visible shivers of delight from the Goa’uld’s fingers to her toes.
Examining their faces, Cam couldn’t tell if the expressions of his team were of horror or relief. He looked down at Vala but she, too, was seized by an indistinguishable strain on her features.
“Janet Fraiser.” The mournful layers of Teal’c’s resonant voice compelled even the streaming sunlight to dim. Cam felt all the hope he was holding inside simply drop. His crestfallen gaze swept the marble floor.
Low cackles punctured their veil of grief. “You finally showed up,” she said, coming to stand before them. Sam was watching a living nightmare. The woman she loved glowed beautifully, radiant and breathtaking, but her every movement, the very slightest of her articulation was a twisted and hideous representation of the natural charm and affection Sam knew.
She could hear her heart ripping apart. The once tough muscles unravelling, sinews breaking, arteries snapping, and she bled.
“I knew if anyone was going to be able to find Sekhem it would be you. SG-1. I admit, though, I was starting to have my doubts.” Nephthys tipped her head to the side. “Or were they Janet’s doubts? Hm.”
The too familiar voice burned in Sam’s ears, piercing and painful. She wanted to block it out, and at the same time, she wanted to hear more. She wanted to filter the waves and find Janet there somewhere. To hear her say her name, to hear Janet telling her she was okay.
Nephthys crossed one foot over her other and began to pace along their fractured line. “But here you are. Sam. Teal’c. Daniel.”
It were as if she fired an arrow with each recitation, brutally striking each of them in the heart.
“Such a shame Jack isn’t with you.” Nephthys put her hands behind her back. “Would have been such a nice reunion.”
“You can fight it, Janet Fraiser. You can overcome her control,” Teal’c asserted.
“Oh,” the Goa’uld smiled wickedly. “If you only knew how desperately she is trying but...she is hardly strong enough. Not that I don’t admire her for making the attempt.” Her gaze drifted upward as though hearing far off sounds. “Poor thing. She’s going to exhaust herself.”
Cam snarled and stepped forward. “Alright, stop this.”
Nephthys spun around, facing him gleefully. “Oh, I’m just getting started Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Trapped in stasis for over a thousand years, I’m finally free and I’m going to have my fun. Starting with...Daniel.”
The party seemed to break and leave Daniel standing alone as Nephthys stalked upon him. Daniel shook his head imploringly, but every step Nephthys took towards him proved his futility.
“You were there to provide cover for a doctor and a wounded soldier. The three of you were easy targets in the middle of heavy fire.”
Daniel grit his teeth and clenched every muscle in his face as though it could unmake the Goa’uld’s words. Tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, catching in the sparse stubble peppered around his jaw.
“And you thought it was an appropriate time to start filming for that ridiculous documentary? A documentary no one was ever going to see no less.” She scoffed as Daniel sputtered in despair. “Was it worth it? Did those movie makers get the dramatic footage they were so desperate for? Did Janet’s death meet their perverse standards?”
These last words tore a wail of regret from the man. His eyes opened and he shook his head helplessly. “I’m sorry. I am so...so sorry!”
Nephthys leaned in closer, her voice darkening in the intimate space between their faces. “She died because of you, Daniel. As if that weren’t bad enough, you abandoned her. Whatever happened to leaving no one behind? Janet Fraiser is a host to a Goa’uld because of you.”
Daniel collapsed to his knees, distraught and beaten. Whimpering softly, his head bowed and his hands came to shelter the shame pouring out of him. Satisfied his pain was sufficient, Nephthys smirked.
“Stop this!” Vala barked from across the room. She threw her fists down behind her. “Stop this now!”
Nephthys glanced over her shoulder, her smile suddenly sweetened. The expression gave Vala pause, and her confidence came immediately undone. She shuffled anxiously as Nephthys chirped in amusement.
“Oh Qetesh,” she sang.
Cam cast narrow eyes from Nephthys to Vala.
“You never did learn to wait your turn.” With a coy smile she looked back down at Daniel, leaving Vala to contemplate the form her own punishment would take.
Janet’s graceful body knelt down low, and Nephthys prepared the salt for Daniel’s wounds.
“Do you want to know what happened after you ran away? After you left her there in the dirt?”
Sam’s feet suddenly darted and squeaked back on the shining marble floor. It was the last thing she wanted to know. She wanted to charge at her, stop her from saying anything more. But a reprehensible part of her had clamped its jaws at her feet. A part that wanted her to suffer. A part that wanted her to know the horrors she had condemned her lover to by not being there to protect her.
“The Jaffa came. She was the only one left. Ba’al knew how valuable she would be. The information she had on the SGC, on Earth...But that was only if he couldn’t locate me.”
Daniel’s sobs had silenced and his hands came an inch apart. He needed to hear. He needed to take in every word and let it dismantle him.
“But he did. He took Janet Fraiser and revived her using the sarcophagus...”
Bathed suddenly in light Janet gasped and scrambled fearfully. She was contained. Movement restricted. She sucked in a breath to scream but there was a clank. The sound of stone on stone accompanied a rush of air as the light broke apart and she could see the texture and detail of an unfamiliar ceiling.
Immediately there were arms reaching for her, hands grabbing at her, roughly removing her from confinement. She kicked and struggled, shouting. Her feet touched the ground and she tugged and twisted in the unbreakable grasp of strange men.
Jaffa, she realized. They brought her deep into a strange doorless cell, tossing her to the floor. Janet fell hard against her outstretched hands and knees, painfully jarring bone. She winced and clenched her teeth through the pain and looked up to see the Jaffa marching away.
One of them turned and activated something outside the wall. Bile rose from the pit of her stomach and struck the back of her throat as shifting gravity yanked her against the back wall. On her back, Janet coughed and spat and rested.
She blinked up at the cell entrance, suddenly above her, and calmly pieced together what had happened. She was in the commissary with Bregman. He was flirting with her and she was tickled with anticipation of teasing Sam about it.
Then she ended up here. It was too strange. She was missing something. She tried to think, tried to stay calm, scroll through her memories. She remembered she was called through the Stargate. There was a battle and a wounded soldier and a noise unlike anything she had ever heard.
Janet’s eyes suddenly flashed. “Oh. Right. I was...fucking shot.” She lay fuming spitefully for a moment until, like the gravity in her cell, the enormity of her situation suddenly sank in. It touched her like a cold ethereal hand reaching into her chest, breaking her body into an instant sweat.
Of course she had learned of Jack O’Neill’s ordeal aboard Ba’al’s Ha’tak vessel. She didn’t know exactly whose ship she was on, but it didn’t change the fact that she could be tortured for information about Earth and the SGC.
She wasn’t trained to withstand such extracting methods. Her threshold for pain was nowhere near the limits Jack could endure. The ground beneath her rolled and swelled like ocean. Her head began to swim. She was sinking.
Her legs crumpled like paper beneath her and her face hit the floor hard. The gravity had shifted again. Janet suddenly lifted her head with a gasp. Jaffa marched towards her. Fretting she pushed herself up, scrambling back against what had once been the floor, as though it could provide her some refuge, some place she could claim sanctuary.
Their hands felt around her, digging ruthlessly into her flesh and dragging her to her feet. The twisting, turning journey through the mothership corridors left her frantic and disoriented. Eventually she was carried into what appeared to be a Goa’uld lab.
A man in a slim dark suit turned from an exam table and smiled at her. “Ah. Sorry to keep you waiting.” Everything about him was the perfect picture of sophistication. Janet had never seen a Goa’uld so immaculately groomed. His strange accent was suave and conversational and Janet’s stomach rolled.
He flashed her a dashing grin. “Name’s Ba’al.”
She tugged backwards. The Jaffa holding her arms felt like rock. This was the Goa’uld who tortured Jack, the same one who slowly and sadistically killed and revived him again and again and again. Janet’s fitful gaze scanned the room for any indication of her fate.
She found that she saw things, strange apparatuses, tools and binds, but could not comprehend what they would be used for. She squirmed as Ba’al took distinguished steps towards her.
“Now, now, my dear.” He reached for her face and she heard herself whimper. Her breath clutched in her throat as his finger touched her cheek. He swept his nail tenderly across her brow to catch loose locks of her hair and tuck them around her ear as she quietly cried.
“I know you work with SG-1 at Stargate Command,” Ba’al said, delicately catching her tears on his fingertip and painting damp lines on her cheeks.
Janet forced her gaze into his eyes despite how she trembled. “I won’t tell you anything.” Her voice failed into a tragic whisper.
“Oh!” Ba’al chirped in delight. His gaze left hers to examine the frazzled pieces of her hair on top of her head. He carefully began grooming her as he said, “Aren’t you precious. Shall we see?”
Janet froze, utterly stiffened by fear. Ba’al hooked the edge of his finger under her chin and she gasped.
“Shall we see how long you would last before you give up every secret of your world?”
She suddenly thought of her daughter. She wondered if she had even hugged Cassie in the morning. She wondered if she had told her she loved her. She tried to remember the last thing she said to the girl before sending her off to school.
She hoped she had given Sam a proper kiss before she left for work. She couldn’t remember. The soldier’s shift started so early in the morning. Janet usually lay in bed a while longer. Maybe Sam had kissed her goodbye. Maybe said that to Sam that she loved her. Janet couldn’t remember.
Ba’al chortled and gathered her face wholly in his hands. “No. Don’t you worry. I won’t be torturing you today.”
Janet just sobbed and didn’t care that Ba’al dried her tears. She was so afraid. She could tell herself she would be strong for her daughter, strong for Sam, strong for Earth and the whole galaxy but the mere thought of going through what Jack had gone through scared her senseless.
She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t reveal everything she knew. She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t give Ba’al the means to destroy everything and everyone she loved. And she wouldn’t have any ascended beings helping her through it, least of all Daniel.
“I actually don’t have to torture you to find out everything you know.”
Ba’al’s hands left her and she followed the movement of a third previously obscured Jaffa who carried a small bubbling tank in his hands.
Janet’s breath hitched and her eyes quaked at the sight of the writhing, squirming symbiote swimming inside. She struggled in earnest as Ba’al lifted his sleeve and plunged his hand inside the tank.
The symbiote screeched and flailed, sensing the body it was about to possess. Strong Jaffa hands wrenched into her short hair, taking fistfuls each. Janet gasped, jaw quivering open as she was made to bend forward and the back of her neck exposed.
She had only moments before she would lose all power over her own body. She had no idea what would happen to her, other than her conscious mind would be suppressed. There was no single action she would ever be able to make.
Thinking of her daughter Cassandra, and Sam, the woman she loved, she relished every feeling and sensation of forming three simple words on her lips.
“I love you.”
“Look, are we going to start negotiations or not?” Cam had his hands on his hips.
Daniel was catatonic. Cam couldn’t think of what would happen to Sam or Teal’c or even Vala if Nephthys were allowed to dictate the way their meeting progressed.
“We can reverse what he did, you know,” Vala said, “You know it can be done. I used to be host to Qetesh. Not anymore.”
The Goa’uld’s lips spread into a rich smile. “Mmm. I know.”
Vala tensed as Nephthys prowled over to her, saying, “But if it were so easy to remove me from this host none of you would look as hopeless as you do now. I know you’re aware of the treaty I have with the Asgard. I have done nothing to violate that contract and I don’t intend to. I’m still willing to negotiate a trade.”
“What could we give you to let us speak to Janet?”
Nephthys turned. “Samantha Carter...” Her gaze was lascivious as she slowly approached, and Teal’c put himself protectively in her way. His ferocious eyes glared down at her and Nephthys smirked. She began to take small, deliberate steps around him, challenging him to physically halt her advance on Sam.
He would not tempt the treaty. Any action he took could be interpreted as a sign of aggression and when Nephthys retaliated, according to the treaty she was defending herself.
Sam visibly shuddered as Nephthys came to stand before her, and gazed up at her with Janet’s beautiful brown eyes.
“It would have to be...,” Nephthys let her gaze pour over Sam’s body like steaming water. Sam could almost feel it heating and drenching her skin. Nephthys looked her straight in the eyes, the corner of her lips curved into a devilish smile. “Interesting.”
“Okay,” Cam barked. “I think this meeting is over. We’re outa here. Come on, guys.”
Nephthys’ mouth watered at the way Sam’s eyes quivered with resolve. Around them were the sounds of boots clomping against the throne room floor, but Sam and Nephthys never moved.
“Sam. Let’s go,” Cam called.
“No.”
“Sam.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Yes. You can. Let’s move.”
“I said, no!” Sam said, shrugging away from Teal’c’s hand on her shoulder.
Nephthys never broke their gaze as she said, “I promise to have her home by nine...”
Cam felt his inside tilt uneasily. It was too far beyond him to comprehend and he just winced defeatedly.
“Fine. Guys, let’s go.”
Teal’c refused to leave Sam’s side and Cam had to order him to follow him out of the hall. When they were finally alone Nephthys hummed.
“Follow me.”
Cam radioed the Odyssey when they returned to the guests’ quarters.
“Oh my god,” Davidson breathed, shocked at the news of Janet.
“For the moment there may not be anything we can do about it,” Cam said, clutching the back of his neck regrettably. “If you could transfer the Asgard treaty to Sam’s tablet we can work to find a loophole.”
“Uploading now,” said Davidson. Cam held the tablet in his hands and watched as the data was received.
“Got it.”
“We’ll relay the news to the SGC. Hopefully we can find something on our end.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it. Mitchell out.”
He sighed and went to find Daniel. He found Teal’c leaving the man’s room. He had never seen the Jaffa so disheartened. The strong forms of his face had been softly eroded by the acidity of his grief.
“How is he?” Cam asked, composing himself.
“Not good. And I am concerned for Colonel Carter.”
Cam nodded. “What about you big guy? How you holding up?”
He was aware of Vala creeping up to the corner of the corridor as Teal’c’s eyes squinted with a surge of emotion and said, “It pains me to think that a dear friend has been through such horrors. I can promise you this Cameron Mitchell, that Asgard treaty or no, there will be little stopping me from doing everything I can to make this right.”
He eased himself past Vala and left for his own room, probably to kelno’reem, Cam thought.
“This isn’t good,” Vala said.
“No. And I’m afraid things are only going to get worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“I haven’t had a chance to tell everyone yet.”
Vala pressed forward curiously, trying to get under his evasive gaze. “Tell us what? What’s going on?”
Cam looked up at her and then at Daniel’s bedroom door. “Not now. I’ll wait until we’re all together. They all need time to process this.”
Pairing: Sam/Janet
Rating: adult
Summary: SG-1 make the horrifying discovery that Janet Fraiser has been host to a Goa’uld for the past three years.
This chapter: Their first meeting with Nephthys goes less than well.
The grace of her step made it an eternity before Nephthys walked the length of the hall and stood before her devastated audience. The ashen looks on their faces sent visible shivers of delight from the Goa’uld’s fingers to her toes.
Examining their faces, Cam couldn’t tell if the expressions of his team were of horror or relief. He looked down at Vala but she, too, was seized by an indistinguishable strain on her features.
“Janet Fraiser.” The mournful layers of Teal’c’s resonant voice compelled even the streaming sunlight to dim. Cam felt all the hope he was holding inside simply drop. His crestfallen gaze swept the marble floor.
Low cackles punctured their veil of grief. “You finally showed up,” she said, coming to stand before them. Sam was watching a living nightmare. The woman she loved glowed beautifully, radiant and breathtaking, but her every movement, the very slightest of her articulation was a twisted and hideous representation of the natural charm and affection Sam knew.
She could hear her heart ripping apart. The once tough muscles unravelling, sinews breaking, arteries snapping, and she bled.
“I knew if anyone was going to be able to find Sekhem it would be you. SG-1. I admit, though, I was starting to have my doubts.” Nephthys tipped her head to the side. “Or were they Janet’s doubts? Hm.”
The too familiar voice burned in Sam’s ears, piercing and painful. She wanted to block it out, and at the same time, she wanted to hear more. She wanted to filter the waves and find Janet there somewhere. To hear her say her name, to hear Janet telling her she was okay.
Nephthys crossed one foot over her other and began to pace along their fractured line. “But here you are. Sam. Teal’c. Daniel.”
It were as if she fired an arrow with each recitation, brutally striking each of them in the heart.
“Such a shame Jack isn’t with you.” Nephthys put her hands behind her back. “Would have been such a nice reunion.”
“You can fight it, Janet Fraiser. You can overcome her control,” Teal’c asserted.
“Oh,” the Goa’uld smiled wickedly. “If you only knew how desperately she is trying but...she is hardly strong enough. Not that I don’t admire her for making the attempt.” Her gaze drifted upward as though hearing far off sounds. “Poor thing. She’s going to exhaust herself.”
Cam snarled and stepped forward. “Alright, stop this.”
Nephthys spun around, facing him gleefully. “Oh, I’m just getting started Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Trapped in stasis for over a thousand years, I’m finally free and I’m going to have my fun. Starting with...Daniel.”
The party seemed to break and leave Daniel standing alone as Nephthys stalked upon him. Daniel shook his head imploringly, but every step Nephthys took towards him proved his futility.
“You were there to provide cover for a doctor and a wounded soldier. The three of you were easy targets in the middle of heavy fire.”
Daniel grit his teeth and clenched every muscle in his face as though it could unmake the Goa’uld’s words. Tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, catching in the sparse stubble peppered around his jaw.
“And you thought it was an appropriate time to start filming for that ridiculous documentary? A documentary no one was ever going to see no less.” She scoffed as Daniel sputtered in despair. “Was it worth it? Did those movie makers get the dramatic footage they were so desperate for? Did Janet’s death meet their perverse standards?”
These last words tore a wail of regret from the man. His eyes opened and he shook his head helplessly. “I’m sorry. I am so...so sorry!”
Nephthys leaned in closer, her voice darkening in the intimate space between their faces. “She died because of you, Daniel. As if that weren’t bad enough, you abandoned her. Whatever happened to leaving no one behind? Janet Fraiser is a host to a Goa’uld because of you.”
Daniel collapsed to his knees, distraught and beaten. Whimpering softly, his head bowed and his hands came to shelter the shame pouring out of him. Satisfied his pain was sufficient, Nephthys smirked.
“Stop this!” Vala barked from across the room. She threw her fists down behind her. “Stop this now!”
Nephthys glanced over her shoulder, her smile suddenly sweetened. The expression gave Vala pause, and her confidence came immediately undone. She shuffled anxiously as Nephthys chirped in amusement.
“Oh Qetesh,” she sang.
Cam cast narrow eyes from Nephthys to Vala.
“You never did learn to wait your turn.” With a coy smile she looked back down at Daniel, leaving Vala to contemplate the form her own punishment would take.
Janet’s graceful body knelt down low, and Nephthys prepared the salt for Daniel’s wounds.
“Do you want to know what happened after you ran away? After you left her there in the dirt?”
Sam’s feet suddenly darted and squeaked back on the shining marble floor. It was the last thing she wanted to know. She wanted to charge at her, stop her from saying anything more. But a reprehensible part of her had clamped its jaws at her feet. A part that wanted her to suffer. A part that wanted her to know the horrors she had condemned her lover to by not being there to protect her.
“The Jaffa came. She was the only one left. Ba’al knew how valuable she would be. The information she had on the SGC, on Earth...But that was only if he couldn’t locate me.”
Daniel’s sobs had silenced and his hands came an inch apart. He needed to hear. He needed to take in every word and let it dismantle him.
“But he did. He took Janet Fraiser and revived her using the sarcophagus...”
Bathed suddenly in light Janet gasped and scrambled fearfully. She was contained. Movement restricted. She sucked in a breath to scream but there was a clank. The sound of stone on stone accompanied a rush of air as the light broke apart and she could see the texture and detail of an unfamiliar ceiling.
Immediately there were arms reaching for her, hands grabbing at her, roughly removing her from confinement. She kicked and struggled, shouting. Her feet touched the ground and she tugged and twisted in the unbreakable grasp of strange men.
Jaffa, she realized. They brought her deep into a strange doorless cell, tossing her to the floor. Janet fell hard against her outstretched hands and knees, painfully jarring bone. She winced and clenched her teeth through the pain and looked up to see the Jaffa marching away.
One of them turned and activated something outside the wall. Bile rose from the pit of her stomach and struck the back of her throat as shifting gravity yanked her against the back wall. On her back, Janet coughed and spat and rested.
She blinked up at the cell entrance, suddenly above her, and calmly pieced together what had happened. She was in the commissary with Bregman. He was flirting with her and she was tickled with anticipation of teasing Sam about it.
Then she ended up here. It was too strange. She was missing something. She tried to think, tried to stay calm, scroll through her memories. She remembered she was called through the Stargate. There was a battle and a wounded soldier and a noise unlike anything she had ever heard.
Janet’s eyes suddenly flashed. “Oh. Right. I was...fucking shot.” She lay fuming spitefully for a moment until, like the gravity in her cell, the enormity of her situation suddenly sank in. It touched her like a cold ethereal hand reaching into her chest, breaking her body into an instant sweat.
Of course she had learned of Jack O’Neill’s ordeal aboard Ba’al’s Ha’tak vessel. She didn’t know exactly whose ship she was on, but it didn’t change the fact that she could be tortured for information about Earth and the SGC.
She wasn’t trained to withstand such extracting methods. Her threshold for pain was nowhere near the limits Jack could endure. The ground beneath her rolled and swelled like ocean. Her head began to swim. She was sinking.
Her legs crumpled like paper beneath her and her face hit the floor hard. The gravity had shifted again. Janet suddenly lifted her head with a gasp. Jaffa marched towards her. Fretting she pushed herself up, scrambling back against what had once been the floor, as though it could provide her some refuge, some place she could claim sanctuary.
Their hands felt around her, digging ruthlessly into her flesh and dragging her to her feet. The twisting, turning journey through the mothership corridors left her frantic and disoriented. Eventually she was carried into what appeared to be a Goa’uld lab.
A man in a slim dark suit turned from an exam table and smiled at her. “Ah. Sorry to keep you waiting.” Everything about him was the perfect picture of sophistication. Janet had never seen a Goa’uld so immaculately groomed. His strange accent was suave and conversational and Janet’s stomach rolled.
He flashed her a dashing grin. “Name’s Ba’al.”
She tugged backwards. The Jaffa holding her arms felt like rock. This was the Goa’uld who tortured Jack, the same one who slowly and sadistically killed and revived him again and again and again. Janet’s fitful gaze scanned the room for any indication of her fate.
She found that she saw things, strange apparatuses, tools and binds, but could not comprehend what they would be used for. She squirmed as Ba’al took distinguished steps towards her.
“Now, now, my dear.” He reached for her face and she heard herself whimper. Her breath clutched in her throat as his finger touched her cheek. He swept his nail tenderly across her brow to catch loose locks of her hair and tuck them around her ear as she quietly cried.
“I know you work with SG-1 at Stargate Command,” Ba’al said, delicately catching her tears on his fingertip and painting damp lines on her cheeks.
Janet forced her gaze into his eyes despite how she trembled. “I won’t tell you anything.” Her voice failed into a tragic whisper.
“Oh!” Ba’al chirped in delight. His gaze left hers to examine the frazzled pieces of her hair on top of her head. He carefully began grooming her as he said, “Aren’t you precious. Shall we see?”
Janet froze, utterly stiffened by fear. Ba’al hooked the edge of his finger under her chin and she gasped.
“Shall we see how long you would last before you give up every secret of your world?”
She suddenly thought of her daughter. She wondered if she had even hugged Cassie in the morning. She wondered if she had told her she loved her. She tried to remember the last thing she said to the girl before sending her off to school.
She hoped she had given Sam a proper kiss before she left for work. She couldn’t remember. The soldier’s shift started so early in the morning. Janet usually lay in bed a while longer. Maybe Sam had kissed her goodbye. Maybe said that to Sam that she loved her. Janet couldn’t remember.
Ba’al chortled and gathered her face wholly in his hands. “No. Don’t you worry. I won’t be torturing you today.”
Janet just sobbed and didn’t care that Ba’al dried her tears. She was so afraid. She could tell herself she would be strong for her daughter, strong for Sam, strong for Earth and the whole galaxy but the mere thought of going through what Jack had gone through scared her senseless.
She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t reveal everything she knew. She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t give Ba’al the means to destroy everything and everyone she loved. And she wouldn’t have any ascended beings helping her through it, least of all Daniel.
“I actually don’t have to torture you to find out everything you know.”
Ba’al’s hands left her and she followed the movement of a third previously obscured Jaffa who carried a small bubbling tank in his hands.
Janet’s breath hitched and her eyes quaked at the sight of the writhing, squirming symbiote swimming inside. She struggled in earnest as Ba’al lifted his sleeve and plunged his hand inside the tank.
The symbiote screeched and flailed, sensing the body it was about to possess. Strong Jaffa hands wrenched into her short hair, taking fistfuls each. Janet gasped, jaw quivering open as she was made to bend forward and the back of her neck exposed.
She had only moments before she would lose all power over her own body. She had no idea what would happen to her, other than her conscious mind would be suppressed. There was no single action she would ever be able to make.
Thinking of her daughter Cassandra, and Sam, the woman she loved, she relished every feeling and sensation of forming three simple words on her lips.
“I love you.”
“Look, are we going to start negotiations or not?” Cam had his hands on his hips.
Daniel was catatonic. Cam couldn’t think of what would happen to Sam or Teal’c or even Vala if Nephthys were allowed to dictate the way their meeting progressed.
“We can reverse what he did, you know,” Vala said, “You know it can be done. I used to be host to Qetesh. Not anymore.”
The Goa’uld’s lips spread into a rich smile. “Mmm. I know.”
Vala tensed as Nephthys prowled over to her, saying, “But if it were so easy to remove me from this host none of you would look as hopeless as you do now. I know you’re aware of the treaty I have with the Asgard. I have done nothing to violate that contract and I don’t intend to. I’m still willing to negotiate a trade.”
“What could we give you to let us speak to Janet?”
Nephthys turned. “Samantha Carter...” Her gaze was lascivious as she slowly approached, and Teal’c put himself protectively in her way. His ferocious eyes glared down at her and Nephthys smirked. She began to take small, deliberate steps around him, challenging him to physically halt her advance on Sam.
He would not tempt the treaty. Any action he took could be interpreted as a sign of aggression and when Nephthys retaliated, according to the treaty she was defending herself.
Sam visibly shuddered as Nephthys came to stand before her, and gazed up at her with Janet’s beautiful brown eyes.
“It would have to be...,” Nephthys let her gaze pour over Sam’s body like steaming water. Sam could almost feel it heating and drenching her skin. Nephthys looked her straight in the eyes, the corner of her lips curved into a devilish smile. “Interesting.”
“Okay,” Cam barked. “I think this meeting is over. We’re outa here. Come on, guys.”
Nephthys’ mouth watered at the way Sam’s eyes quivered with resolve. Around them were the sounds of boots clomping against the throne room floor, but Sam and Nephthys never moved.
“Sam. Let’s go,” Cam called.
“No.”
“Sam.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Yes. You can. Let’s move.”
“I said, no!” Sam said, shrugging away from Teal’c’s hand on her shoulder.
Nephthys never broke their gaze as she said, “I promise to have her home by nine...”
Cam felt his inside tilt uneasily. It was too far beyond him to comprehend and he just winced defeatedly.
“Fine. Guys, let’s go.”
Teal’c refused to leave Sam’s side and Cam had to order him to follow him out of the hall. When they were finally alone Nephthys hummed.
“Follow me.”
Cam radioed the Odyssey when they returned to the guests’ quarters.
“Oh my god,” Davidson breathed, shocked at the news of Janet.
“For the moment there may not be anything we can do about it,” Cam said, clutching the back of his neck regrettably. “If you could transfer the Asgard treaty to Sam’s tablet we can work to find a loophole.”
“Uploading now,” said Davidson. Cam held the tablet in his hands and watched as the data was received.
“Got it.”
“We’ll relay the news to the SGC. Hopefully we can find something on our end.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it. Mitchell out.”
He sighed and went to find Daniel. He found Teal’c leaving the man’s room. He had never seen the Jaffa so disheartened. The strong forms of his face had been softly eroded by the acidity of his grief.
“How is he?” Cam asked, composing himself.
“Not good. And I am concerned for Colonel Carter.”
Cam nodded. “What about you big guy? How you holding up?”
He was aware of Vala creeping up to the corner of the corridor as Teal’c’s eyes squinted with a surge of emotion and said, “It pains me to think that a dear friend has been through such horrors. I can promise you this Cameron Mitchell, that Asgard treaty or no, there will be little stopping me from doing everything I can to make this right.”
He eased himself past Vala and left for his own room, probably to kelno’reem, Cam thought.
“This isn’t good,” Vala said.
“No. And I’m afraid things are only going to get worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“I haven’t had a chance to tell everyone yet.”
Vala pressed forward curiously, trying to get under his evasive gaze. “Tell us what? What’s going on?”
Cam looked up at her and then at Daniel’s bedroom door. “Not now. I’ll wait until we’re all together. They all need time to process this.”