Beyond - part 5

TITLE : Beyond
AUTHOR : Jaclyn Horrod
EMAIL : jhorrod@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: Action, Drama
SPOILERS : Set in Season 4 - spoilers for Into The Fire, Shades of Grey, Thor's Chariot.
SEASON / SEQUEL : Season 4.  If you haven't read Jaclyn's stories : Sacrifices, The Rescue and Deception's Kiss, Interactions, Inquisitions, you might want to read them first.  Continues in Sedition.
RATING : 15 /  Mature.
CONTENT WARNINGS : Mature subject matter, cussing (what do you expect from Jack O'Neill?)
SUMMARY : O'Neill, freed from his liaison with Heru'Ur and Hathor, is hoping to return to his duties as team leader of SG-1.  But as he relives some of the memories with Jackson, he realises the ultimate goal of his ruthless and cunning former ally.  Now it's a race against time - can he and SG-1 prevent disaster?
STATUS : Complete.
ARCHIVE : Rabelais, Heliopolis.
DISCLAIMER : Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM, Gekko Film Corp and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money exchanged hands. No copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AUTHOR'S NOTES : I would like to thank my extraordinary beta-reader, Rach, whose constant encouragement and assistance is so greatly appreciated.  I could not have continued to write without her support.
FEEDBACK : Most definitely!

Part 5.1

O'Neill lay in the bed alone, looking up at the strangely decorative hieroglyphs that spanned the length of the ceiling, forged in gold, the light reflecting across them.  

His mood was sombre, even knowing the truth hadn't prevented him from being possessed with so much passion it had nearly exhausted him.  The reality of that passion, why he'd lost control so completely to this very devious creature, permeated his mind. Finally the incredulity he should have possessed, now stunningly clear.

'Good call Jack!'  He told himself, but as much as he wanted to find disgust, as much as he needed to loathe her, and probably himself, for being so easily deceived, he couldn't quite find that abhorrence. It had to be the drug!

He felt almost relieved that it was a farce, that feeling admonishing him of the guilt that would no doubt bite him on the ass at a later date.  But there was something else now too -  Iceni, he had that responsibility, the child he'd unwittingly fathered whilst believing himself to be in control, realising that this was just another tool to keep him right where the Goa'uld wanted him.

But unlike the experience with Nurti, the drug ensured his desire for Hathor, which he found a little uncomfortable.  Somewhere, he reasoned, there had to be something he could do to undo this, but that was probably wishful thinking.

Hathor had still been kind to him, telling him of her desire to have him by her side, as an equal. An equal?  That much he couldn't figure out.

The drug, she had finally told him, was far more addictive than anything he'd ever known before, and once introduced into the system, became a part of the function of the body; a lack of it would result in death, painfully slow.  She'd whispered that to him with such an obvious delight that the very nature of the danger he faced had caused him to panic. Inwardly, at least, he had been gripped with fear; outwardly, he'd remained calm, and assured her, probably not without undue assistance from that with which she enslaved him, that he'd no intention of ever leaving her.

'Good call Jack!'

In the cold light of day he realised, to his chagrin, that Jackson, as he generally was, had been right again.  He'd been a fool, out of his depth the whole time.  Heru'ur was after the same thing as Hathor, yet he'd still saved O'Neill's life before he'd learned of the Ancients download, redeeming the colonel's judgment in at least one case!  Hathor had been far better qualified though to ensure she had his cooperation.

He wondered how long it would be before she started to withhold the drug in order to gain his knowledge, how long her patience would hold out, his hand to his forehead now, Jack began to prepare himself for the very real possibility that he'd die, what choice did he have?  He knew he'd never divulge that information. Slowly and painfully, he thought, 'yep, good call Jack!'

*********

"God, it's hot here," Sam complained, as they gathered as many plant samples as they could, within the one-mile radius all had agreed upon. "I just hope we're getting the right plants!"

"Well one of them is bound to be right," Janet replied, looking dubiously across at Carter. "Right?"

"I hope so, or we're risking our butts here to save the colonel for nothing," she agreed. “God, I can’t believe he’d fall for that!” she remonstrated. “I mean, so much for Special Forces mind training, and Ancients downloads, right? First sniff of a skirt and men just lose it!”

“Hey, steady Sam,” Fraiser warned, sensing Carter's frustration, her fear.  She'd spent some time talking to her about the whole issue, and detected that there was a lot more going on in that computer like mind than Carter wanted to let on.

“The colonel’s just a man after all, and we know what that means!”

“Oh, don’t we ever, weak, easily led. But come on, did you ever figure the colonel to be obsessing with a Goa’uld?” Sam enquired.

“Well I don’t know, she is beautiful, I guess,” Janet added, a wry smile. “But if it is this drug, I guess we can pretty much rule out Colonel O’Neill having any say in the matter.”

Janet felt she needed to show some caution, she knew Sam idolised O'Neill. When he'd been trapped on a previous mission, Carter had all but exhausted herself, and come close to admitting that fact.

"Sam?" Fraiser asked. "You think the colonel’s going to be able to handle this, when he’s hopefully freed of the drug induced lust?”

“Wow! I never gave it much thought, you know?” Carter responded, incredulity sweeping her expression. “I mean you don’t generally see him show that much emotion... except maybe temper, I see that frequently.”

“Think he knows he's under the influence, or do you think he really believes it's love?" Janet persisted.

Carter paused, considering the question. "Maybe a bit of both, the colonel's a hard man to read!" she replied, looking across at Fraiser. "And even more difficult to get to open up. About the only person he ever really talks to is Daniel." Her tone was a little bitter.

"That's got to be a little irritating," Janet responded. "Still hard to be one of the boys after all this time hah?"

"You know, I thought he'd open up more..." she sighed. "Once he got to know me, but he's just so difficult to get close to.  Daniel said he'd be that way, until he got to know me, but I still feel like an outsider some times," she admitted.

"So, you're relying on getting to know the colonel better through Daniel?" Janet probed, seeing the expression on Carter's face, the clear anguish of feeling like the 'new girl’ obviously a point of vexation for her.

"Oh, Daniel's worse in some ways,” Sam replied, shaking her head.

"Daniel?" Janet sounded amazed.

"Yeah, it's bizarre, ask him anything about him, fine, we can talk. I mean we even got around to how he felt about Sha’re once, which was nice, you know?” she imparted. “Made me feel like at least I could be a friend, but if I even go near the subject of the colonel, three lines and out!" Sam said, looking across at Janet with an indignant air. "Mind you, having a conversation with Teal'c can be a little difficult too, stoic!"

"Oh!" Janet exclaimed. She smiled. "Must be hard for you. What do you talk about on longer missions?"

"Mostly, the missions!" Sam said, her face screwing up. "The most I ever got from Colonel O'Neill was when we were in Antarctica, and then he was delirious!"

Both women laughed at that.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to join in on one of those guys nights out!" She paused then. "Do they have any hobbies?"

Carter gave that some thought, looking ruefully at Janet. "The colonel's is sarcasm, and Daniel's, well I guess archaeology," Carter said, chuckling to herself then. "Although, I have been to a couple of concerts with Daniel, he's kinda fun when he's not talking relics!” She paused then, her lips pursing together. “Actually, the other day, he asked me if I found him attractive, which was odd, right out of the blue!" Sam laughed, her cheeks flushing once more, a wry smile at the memory. “He’s a lot more cagey than he makes out to be!”

"He did?” Janet laughed. “Wow, and there I was thinking that he was a little different to these other guys, I mean not so testosterone reliant. What did you say?”

Sam smiled. “Well, he is kind of cute!” she remarked. “But, it’s against regulations.  He just asked if finding him attractive was something I’d ever thought of, but you know, it is against regulations, and besides, I’m, well... see anymore plants?”

Janet laughed. “Not going there hah? I can imagine Daniel would be an interesting date,” she said at length. “So never socialised with the colonel?"

Sam pulled up yet another plant, placing into one of the many sample bags they had. "No, I never have. I haven't even been to his house since we thought Daniel died," she replied.

"But Daniel and Teal'c go right?" Janet asked, as they began to walk back toward the Stargate. "You're a member of the team, what's stopping you?"

Carter looked across at her. "I don't know, he's invited me to go fishing, I mean fishing?" She laughed again.  "Daniel's spent some time, off duty with him, Teal'c's more on base.  I actually called there one morning, the colonel's, and Daniel answered the phone, I didn't think they had that much in common?" Carter said, almost bemused. "Turns out they'd been on an all night drinking session, playing chess, and Daniel tells me later that the colonel listens to Puccini?"

Janet looked surprised. "Puccini? The colonel?"

Sam nodded. "Weird or what?"

"Weird!" Janet said. "Definitely."

"I guess we've got enough here, I just hope we can synthesize a cure!" Sam remarked, accounting for the other four women, before dialling the gate.

"Well, Teal'c seems to know what the substance is, we just need to know that, and then we at least have the building blocks!" Janet said.

********

"So, let me get this straight, you think that Hathor had Jack addicted to this drug the whole time?" Daniel asked Teal'c in the commissary, as the two men drank coffee.

"Indeed Daniel Jackson, it is my belief that under no other circumstances would Colonel O'Neill behave in such a manner!" Teal'c asserted.

"Well, you could be right about that," Jackson replied, a grimace, Teal'c too recognising the O'Neill-esque manner in which Daniel had replied.  "Actually I thought it was down to the whole alienation thing he was feeling."

"Yes, I am aware," Teal'c told him. "However, had Colonel O'Neill been in such a position, I believe that he would have severed all bonds to the SGC and Earth."

Daniel regarded him, nodding his head slowly. "You know, you're right!" he agreed,

"Jack's definitely got a penchant for doing extreme things when he feels he's been betrayed."  He looked directly at the Jaffa now. "But what was I thinking?  Jack in love with a Goa'uld of his own volition?" A heavy sigh.

The base alarms activated then, both men realising that an incoming wormhole had been established. They abandoned the coffee, and the conversation.

********

"Major Carter, everything go according to plan?" Hammond enquired, as the team returned through the gate.

"General Hammond sir?" Sergeant Davis from the control room, Hammond spun around.

"What is it Sergeant?" he asked.

"Sir, we're getting reports from deep space radar of an inbound blip on their tracking sir," Davis told him.

Hammond looked at Carter. "What now?" he asked.

She followed him to the control room, the image of Jacob Carter covered the screens the instant they arrived.

"Sorry about the scare folks, but I wasn't close to a Stargate," he announced.

Carter leant forward, operating the communications console. "Dad, what's up?"

"Permission to land?" Jacob asked.

Carter looked at Hammond who nodded. "Permission granted Dad!"

********

Around the briefing table, Jacob, who had arrived with Martouf, looked dubiously at the assembled SGC personnel.

"You've got a huge problem George," Jacob imparted.

"We realise that Jacob, Carter and Dr. Fraiser have obtained the plant samples..."

Hammond stopped in mid flow.

"What plant?  What are you talking about George?" Jacob seemed confused.

Hammond regarded him then. "You're not here to tell us about the drug Hathor is using on Colonel O'Neill?"

Martouf shook his head. "We should have realised this when they disappeared," he said.

"Disappeared?" Daniel replied. "Jack?"

"Yes," Jacob answered, looking at Jackson, "what drug?"

Teal'c responded. "We have obtained the plant on Syliias which I believe that Hathor has used on Colonel O'Neill to maintain his subservience," he stated.

"Drug?" Jacob's retort incredulous, Selmak's eyes glowed at the SGC contingent. "The plant of which you speak is a parasite, it becomes one with the host, once it has taken all that it requires to assimilate the tissue, it will destroy the host without the toxin it needs being constantly introduced to the system," 

Carter looked at Janet. "Parasite?" she asked.

"It is a very sophisticated organism Doctor, once it permeates the system of the host it's virtually impossible to remove!" Selmak responded.

"Virtually impossible?" Daniel looked stunned; Jacob nodded at him.

"Jacob, why did you come?" Hammond asked, trying to digest this new information.

"We learned that Heru'ur has launched over a two hundred motherships, all of which are headed in various directions of space," Jacob imparted.

"What? Why?" Carter enquired, confused.

"He's searching for Colonel O'Neill, apparently Hathor and the colonel disappeared from the system over twelve hours ago!"

Daniel looked horrified. "We have to find Jack!" he snapped, the panic that gripped him at the thought of what O'Neill was capable of, raised his voice a little higher than he'd intended. "She must know about the Ancients!"

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond exclaimed.

"I'm sorry General, but if she has absconded with Jack, this is vitally important, and I mean vitally!" Daniel told him.

"Daniel Jackson, why is this so vital?" Teal'c enquired, sensing perhaps that Jackson knew something that he'd kept from all of his colleagues.

"Daniel what about the Ancients?" Carter asked.

Jackson collected his thoughts all eyes on him; he looked at Hammond, his eyebrows knitting together. "Um, yes, I was getting to that actually!"

"Care to get to it a little faster Doc?" Makepeace enquired.

"Well, apparently the Ancients told Jack that he has the power destroy the ones that plague all, and I suppose I should have realised that when they said he was bonded to the Goa'uld, that they were hinting at something nefarious!"

"What?" Hammond looked flabbergasted. "Are you saying that the colonel met the

Ancients?"

"Well, he spoke to them, he said he couldn't see them at all," Daniel told them. "But they told him, something about possessing this power. Which is not just from the Ancients download, but from the Seng'olians."

"Who?" Makepeace asked, looking completely baffled now at the unending deluge of information.

"The race responsible for Jack's telepathic and telekinetic abilities, the ones we met on PJ5‑909," Jackson imparted.

"Wait a minute, there was nothing in the report about these Seng’olians Daniel?" Carter stated.

"Yeah I know," Daniel responded. "Jack only discovered this from the Ancients," he lied, trying to cover both his own, and the colonel's six.

"Is there anything else you feel we should know?" Hammond charged, clearly angry with Jackson.

Daniel glanced at Hammond, the General's features stony.

"Um no, I don't think so," he replied sheepishly.

"Jacob, can you help?" Hammond asked, another accusatory glance towards Jackson. "We seem to be operating in the dark here!"

"With finding Colonel O'Neill?" Jacob replied. "We still have people working within the ranks of the Goa'uld. With the toxin?  Martouf would be better qualified to answer that!"

"Martouf?" Carter asked.

The Tok'ra sighed heavily. "So far we have been unable to engineer anything that might prove useful, however, I will obtain our research, and work with you in attempting to find an answer!"

"Dr. Jackson, I'd like to see you in my office!" Hammond snapped. "Dismissed!"

Daniel looked across at Sam; the major shook her head. "You should have told us

Daniel," she said.

"When did I have a chance?" Daniel argued. "With all this going on?"

Carter stared at him, maybe he was right.  So much had happened that even she had felt at times like there wasn't a moment’s pause.  She nodded then, "I doubt General Hammond's going to see it that way!"

"Well, I guess I'll find out!" Daniel replied, heading toward that destination.

"Come in Daniel," Hammond said. "Sit down."

"Um, General Hammond, before you start lecturing me about my responsibilities here, I feel compelled to explain," Jackson stated.

"I'm listening Doctor," the General conceded.

"Firstly, I thought I was acting with Jack's best interests at heart, which, in hindsight, was a mistake," Daniel explained. "But I wasn't intentionally holding anything back from you."

"Son, you know that without the relevant information this command can not operate effectively," Hammond lectured. "I accept that any advice and opinion you may have offered concerning Colonel O'Neill, was done with the best intentions, however, I don't buy that bunk about you're not knowing about this other situation concerning the alien race you encountered on PJ5-909!" He looked at Jackson with renewed disdain. "There's nothing I can do about that right now, since for what ever reason, Colonel O'Neill decided to keep this information out of his report. But I won't tolerate this clear breach of SGC rules! Like it or not Dr. Jackson you are a part of this team, and that means I expect a degree of honesty and integrity concerning matters regarding the safety of the SGC and Earth."

"General, this doesn't affect Earth," Jackson retorted.

"You're wrong Dr. Jackson!" Hammond's fist slammed into his desk. "Colonel O'Neill's abduction by the Goa'uld, with knowledge that could potentially make them an even greater threat, affects the safety of the entire universe!"

Jackson lowered his eyes then, realising what he'd failed to before. "Sir, I'm sorry," he said softly.

"I realise that Jack is your commanding officer, and a friend, which I'm taking into consideration here. I’ll deal with Colonel O'Neill about this failure to follow procedure, should we manage to somehow untangle this whole mess and get him back here in one piece!"

"Yes sir," Daniel replied, "I accept any decision you intend to make about my future here..."

"Son, I ought to drum you out of this command!" Hammond snapped. "And I wouldn't hesitate if I thought that you hadn't acted out of the best intentions."

"Yes sir," Jackson responded, finding that answer the only one that he felt capable of giving.  He knew he'd withheld the information, not only about the Seng'olians, but also the Ancients, fearing that if he'd imparted it, that it would only serve to make them more likely to consider the option of eliminating his friend.

Hammond regarded him, still angry at his actions, yet understanding his loyalty to Jack O'Neill, however misguided that loyalty appeared to be.

"Daniel," he said, his tone a little softer, "I'm sure that Major Carter and Dr. Fraiser would appreciate your input, dismissed."

Jackson looked at him. "I, um, think I'd be more help to the Tok'ra in finding Jack sir," he replied. "If Hathor's intention is to hide from Heru'ur, then it might be somewhere she's used before, something in mythology."

Hammond nodded. "Let's hope you're right!" he replied.

***********

"So what's the deal?" Jack asked Hathor, having spent almost twenty minutes lost in the pyramid structure of this new dwelling.

"Deal?" she replied, sitting on a golden throne, surrounded by the splendour of Ancient Egypt. "We require that our beloved joins us in our quest to conquer the system lords, where we may rule what is rightfully ours!"

"Yeah, I got that much, seen the film half a dozen times!" he replied, a grimace sweeping his face. "I mean me and the kid?"

"You are our Pharaoh, did we not tell you this last night?"

"Look!" Jack snapped, walking toward her, covering the distance quickly. "You're after this stuff in my head right? So can we just be done with the pretence?"

"Pretence?" Hathor enquired, her regard one of curiosity. "Of what do you accuse us?"

"Dammit!" O'Neill vociferated. "I'm about this close to..."

"To what?" She looked at him with disdain. "Our beloved is weak, have we not told him he is unable to leave our side!"

"Hey! If it's a choice of death or you," Jack retorted. "I'll take the former."

Hathor stood, walking down the steps towards him. "You would kill your own child?"

She enquired, the calculated tone in her voice, the contempt in those intense blue eyes challenging O'Neill, a challenge to which she knew he had no answer.

Jack closed his eyes. "Is that a threat?"

"Our Pharaoh knows very well what we are capable of, he tries our patience constantly and yet we spare him!  Tell us, is the life of his child worth more to him than that of the Tau'ri?" She teased deliberately, a wicked sense of pleasure derived from watching him so easily torn.

"I can't answer that," he told her, time to bluff. "But then again if I was dead, it really wouldn't affect me!"

"Our beloved believes that we would let him die?" Hathor's tone mocked him. "We have a Sarcophagus.  We would greatly enjoy watching the agony of his struggle as we brought him back to life to watch his child die."

O'Neill looked down, away from her, he didn't have anything left, no cards to play.  She knew well enough that he'd never do anything to harm the life of his child.  He was in a no win situation, check mate!

"How do I get rid of you?" he asked her finally, looking up into her eyes, trying to find that hatred he now felt for himself, and project it toward her.

She touched his face softly with her fingertips, causing him to flinch, but this reaction was followed almost immediately with wanting that contact, with a need for her. He swallowed hard, looking into her eyes.

"We will never be rid of you our beloved, you are our chosen one.  He that can give us all that we desire," she imparted. "Very soon you will give us the means with which we shall begin to gather our armies and destroy the system lords." Her fingers traced the line of his jaw.  "And you will be at our side!"

"I don't think so," Jack replied, his tone empty.

"Really?" She gripped his face in her hand now, her long fingernails biting into his cheeks. "When you are unable to stand the pain any longer, you will come to us and beg for your freedom, for our favour."

Jack shook his head, making her free the grip. "You think you've got me right where you want me don't you?" he asked, managing to glare at her now, emanating some of the intense hatred that was beginning to build inside him, at this feeling of being cornered. 

"We will greatly enjoy your coming to us," she intoned, certain of the hold over him.

"Of your kneeling before us, recognising that we are your goddess, and you will serve us!"

O'Neill took a deep breath, turning away from her and walking slowly toward the exit of the huge chambers within the pyramid, that he now viewed more as a tomb.

She watched him leave, a smile crossing her eyes. "Bring the child to me!" she ordered.

*******

Kalim waited for O'Neill, who was once more lost within the maze of tunnels.

"My lord," he called.

"Kalim," Jack acknowledged. "Got any bright ideas?"

"Your Jaffa are loyal to you my lord," Kalim told him. "Tell me what you would have us do?"

Jack stopped, looking at his first prime. "Got a cure for this damn drug?" he asked, a grimace crossing his features when the Jaffa's response was to shake his head.

"Well I guess there's not much to do, except." He paused, looking at the Jaffa. "Can you get to Heru'ur?"

"Yes my lord," Kalim responded.

"Okay, find H, maybe he knows how this damn stuff works," Jack said, his mind beginning to churn with the possibilities that having that particular ally offered him. "Wait a minute," he sighed. "He'll basically want to kill her right?"

"Yes my lord," Kalim responded.

"Which is gonna be a problem!" Jack considered it. "See, if she dies, which right now I really hope she does, and H doesn't know what the hell this stuff she's infected me with is…" He didn't need to say anything else; both men knew the consequences of that particular scenario. He tried to focus now on what was best; his mind was in turmoil, trapped by the tenuous circumstances of his predicament. "Can you get the kid?"

"I believe so my lord, what would you have me do with your child?"

"Get her safe, we'll talk about the rest later," Jack instructed.

"Safe my lord?"

"As far away from Hathor as you can, anywhere but here, got it?" Jack intoned.

"Yes my lord, I shall do as you bid!"

"Sweet, thanks." He turned, beginning to walk, stopping, looking over his shoulder. "This is the right way back to my room right?" he asked.

"No my lord, it is that way," the Jaffa responded, pointing in quite the opposite direction.

Jack nodded at him, the well-worn grimace covering his face once more. "Why can't they just have houses like everyone else?" he complained, walking back past the bemused Jaffa.

***********

Carter threw her hands up in the air. "God why won't this work!" she snapped. Martouf and Janet looked across patiently at her. "Sorry," she intoned.

"Samantha," Martouf spoke quietly. "This might take some time."

"I know that Martouf, but we don't have the luxury of time!" she retorted. "If the colonel's life is in danger from continued exposure to this, we're running out of it rapidly."

"As long as she continues to require his knowledge, I believe she will keep him alive," Martouf responded.

"But how long for, do you know what this does if he doesn't get the drug?" Carter enquired.

Martouf looked across at Janet, taking a deep breath and holding it. "Yes," he replied.

"So?"

"Sam, shouldn't we be concentrating on finding out how this works, so we can find out how to break it down?" Janet reminded her, trying to keep her mind, as well as her colleague’s, off the possible ramifications.

"I guess," Sam responded.

"So we know it's not a pathogen," Janet began. "But it does attach itself to the host in a similar method, multiplying exponentially, until it's taken control of the basic amino acid functions, and distributes them, along with it's own unique DNA strand, into the vital organs, which then require the toxin it feeds upon to continue function."

"Yes, that is correct. The organism also effects the central nervous system, and the messages that it sends around the body," Martouf added.

"Okay, so what exactly does all that mean in terms of finding an antidote?" Carter enquired.

"Since it's basically taking over the body’s normal functions and controlling them, including, obviously, " Janet explained, "the perception, and sensory aspects, we need to find something that will break the flow of information, block it long enough for the colonel's own immune system to kick in."

"Great! How do we do that?" Sam asked.

Martouf and Janet exchanged a look; both knew how difficult that particular aspect was. "Well, we keep looking until we find something that effectively manages to attack the organism without affecting the tissue surrounding it," she replied.

Carter looked almost defeated. "Just what I wanted to hear!" she remarked. 

"Hold on?" Janet exclaimed. "Remember the colonel's incident with that vampire?"

"Yeah," Sam responded. "Didn't that have the same kind of affect?"

"Yes it did, we may be looking at this entirely the wrong way, we don't need to find a cure, there is one!" she replied.

Martouf looked at her curiously. "I'm sorry, I don't understand, you have an antidote?"

"Janet, are you sure?" Sam said, both relieved and concerned at the same time, her features contorting furiously as she listened to Fraiser.

"It's working the same way, and we know what cured him the last time," Janet enthused.

"Boy is the colonel not going to like this!" Sam remarked.

**********

Hathor entered the room, looking across at Jack, who sat with his back to her on one of the long sofas, throwing a small golden orb up in the air.

"Our beloved?" she called.

"What?" Jack startled, looking around at her, a perplexed regard crossing his face. "And I really wish you'd stop calling me that!"

"You are angry at us?" she enquired.

"Ya think!"

"We have given you all that you could wish for, why do you punish us for this?"

"Why do you care?" Jack asked her, standing up, his expression incredulous. "You wanted to see me suffer remember? So I guess you got what you wanted!"

"We would prefer our beloved to be with us, to join us," she admitted.

"Hey! You should have thought about that before you decided to trick me, not really conducive to creating trust!" Jack remonstrated. “And by the way, what exactly is it you think you’ve given me?”

“We have given you our time, and our body. Perhaps our beloved forgets the child we have blessed him with!” she replied, her expression incredulous.

“Oh, yeah, thanks for that by the way. Something you can hold over my head right?”

She regarded him. "Very well," she intoned. "Since you will not enjoy the gifts we have given you, you will tell us that which we wish to know, or you will suffer!"

"Oh, here we go," Jack snapped, moving to within reach of her. "Snake’s losing her temper!" he goaded.

"You would be wise not to test us!" she warned, her eyes flashing furiously at him.

"Hey! In case it escaped your attention, I'm not exactly known for my intellect!" Jack replied sarcastically.

"We wish to know the information possessed by the Ancients for the construction of a ship," she demanded.

"Sorry, can't help you with that," Jack responded, regarding her now with a level of disdain he hadn't thought possible.

"Deny us, and you will not like the consequences!" she snapped, moving closer to him.

"Oh, let me think about that then, ah, no!" O'Neill's steely gaze unyielding.

Hathor raised her hand, sending the energy of her anger through the ribbon device,   O'Neill ready for this reaction activated the shield, smirking at her. "Nice try!" he goaded.

"We will destroy you if you do not kneel before your goddess and tell us all that we must know now!" she raged.

"Nope!" Jack retorted, finding her anger, the flashing rage that resonated in those intense eyes that he almost longed to gaze into, fascinating. "Nice to finally meet ya though!"

"We are not amused by this facade that you show us!" Hathor told him. "We know that you shall soon be demanding our attention,"

"Yeah I might at that," he replied, resigned to that fact at least. "But it won't make any difference, you can do that whole pouting deal, threaten to kill me, hey, why don't you go get our kid and threaten her life too?"

He stared at her defiantly; she was finding him as alluring as he so obviously did her.

They both stopped at that moment to drink in the other. Yet, even this could not dissipate the anger they both clearly felt.

Hathor’s eyes narrowed, "Jaffa kree!" she snapped. "Bring the child to us!"

The Jaffa looked across at O'Neill. "Go ahead," Jack told him, a smile crossing his features.

Hathor quickly realised that he had deceived her. "What have you done with our child?"

"She's safe, where her psychotic excuse for a mother can't get at her!" he snapped, a wicked smile crossing those deep brown eyes. His eyebrows flicked upwards. “Not that I’d mind being got at!” he added, catching himself. “Okay, that was the drug talking!”

Her eyes flashed once more, she moved closer still, her hand easily able to reach through the shield that the colonel had used to protect himself with.  Her hand gripped his throat, their eyes locked together. “Our beloved desires us even now!” she snapped. “Shall we give ourselves to him?”

“Um, no,” Jack winced; his eyes lost in hers once more.

She smiled then, a wicked intense smile.  "You will pay dearly for this," she said coolly. “We shall have you, and you shall kneel before your Goddess!”

Jack's expression unmoved, the hatred he’d finally released, resonated through his whole being, yet curtailed by the touch, dampened by the gaze, overwhelmed by this extraordinary woman.

She threw him back easily. "You shall learn that we are not to be fooled with." She spoke quietly, looking down at him with impiety. "We shall leave our beloved until he screams our name and begs our forgiveness!"

Jack allowed the breath he'd been holding to escape, a heavy protracted sigh.  He looked across at the Jaffa, who regarded him.  He climbed to his feet.

"Don't ever marry a Goa'uld!" he advised, noting the confusion projected from the face of his charge. “They’re damned irritating, in a kinda beautiful, intoxicating... okay, that’s the drug talking!” A grimace, which was easily over come with a smile. “I guess!”

"My lord, would you wish that I destroy her?" he asked, clearly unable to understand why his master would allow her such latitude.

"Um, no," the colonel responded, his eyes narrowed then. "I think I can manage that one myself, apparently," he said, with reference to his liaison with Nurti, "the only way to get a divorce around here!"

The Jaffa bowed his head, backing out of the room and giving O'Neill his privacy once more.

He looked around the room, the surroundings that had by now become as familiar to him as residing at his own home. 

"Yep! Good call Jack!" he said.

********

Hammond entered the briefing room.  "Dr. Fraiser," he acknowledged, taking his seat.

"Sir, we think we have the answer to the parasite," she informed him, and the others that now sat around the table.

"And that is?" Hammond enquired.

"We think, if the colonel is, um, killed sir, that the parasite will die, having nothing to feed on in his system." Her voice was uneasy as she imparted the information.

"You think?" Daniel challenged incredulously.

"Daniel, remember the parasite from that encounter with the Vampiric species, it works the same way," Carter told him.

"Well, I'm sorry, it's probably the ‘we think’ aspect that might be making me question your theory here. Is it we think?" he demanded. "Or we know?"

"We can't be totally sure," Fraiser responded.

"Um, excuse me doctor, but don't you think you should test your theory?" Makepeace asked, as stunned by this new information as any he'd heard over the past few weeks.

"How?" Carter asked.

Makepeace raised his eyebrows. "Jack's the guinea pig!" he intoned.

"Hathor has a Sarcophagus," Martouf told him.

"Oh, I'm sure that'll make Jack feel one whole hell of a lot better about it!" the colonel snapped.

"If you're sure that this is the only way to find out Doctor, then I'm inclined to try, but all of this is of course contingent on our locating colonel O'Neill," Hammond said. "Are we any closer to that Dr. Jackson?"

"Um, actually sir, yes, we think we've found the ideal place, it doesn't have a Stargate, and it's the first place that Ra conquered, Thebes!" Jackson told him.

"No Stargate?" Carter's turn for incredulity.

"It's a long way," Jacob stated.

"How long Jacob?" Hammond asked.

"Three or four weeks by Tel'tac," Jacob answered. "If we had a mothership, half the time!"

"That's not good!" Carter said. "The colonel may not have that much time."

"We know that, which is why Dr. Jackson has a plan!" Jacob retorted.

Hammond looked across at Jackson.

"Um, I think we should contact Heru'ur, tell him we know where Jack is," Daniel suggested.

Makepeace looked heavenwards. "Are you nuts?" he demanded.

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond enquired, waiting for Jackson to respond, his eyes flicking to Jacob.

"Um, am I nuts?" Daniel replied. "No. Heru'ur is looking for Jack, he knows that Hathor will attempt to acquire the information that he's worked hard to obtain over the last few months, in the confusion, I'm hoping that we can get Jack, with the help of his Jaffa, out of there."

"Jacob?"

"I agree with Daniel. To be perfectly frank, I think it's the quickest way to get at Colonel O'Neill, but obviously will be fraught with problems," Jacob responded.

"I don't think we have an option here," Daniel stated assertively. "If we don't get Jack back, and Heru'ur does locate, and probably kills Hathor, Jack's dead for sure, and we won't be able to get to him!"

"I thought if he died that would get rid of the organism?" Hammond questioned. "Surely Heru'ur would be obliged to put him in a Sarcophagus?"

"Not exactly the right plan sir, since the organism will effectively have killed him, it'll destroy the tissue, which will simply regenerate along with the colonel in a sarcophagus!"

Hammond took a deep breath, looking at Jackson. "You seriously believe that Heru'ur will comply, and take you and a small team to the colonel?

"I doubt he'd let a team General, maybe just me," Daniel said.

"Are you sure about that Daniel?" Carter asked.

"I can't say for sure, but he's not exactly very affable," Jackson replied.

Hammond looked across at Carter, then to Makepeace.  "Well, I think Dr. Jackson is right, and as much as I don't agree with involving Heru'ur in this, we don't seem to have a choice!" Makepeace looked at Jackson dubiously. "Daniel, I think I'm coming with!" he stated.

"Colonel, as much as I'd like some company..."

"No arguments Dr. Jackson, as your team leader, and commanding officer, you don't get a say in this, you're not equipped to deal with anything military that might come up, and if Heru'ur wants to get his hands on Colonel O'Neill, he'll have to agree!" Makepeace asserted.

Daniel smiled. "I think he'll understand that logic," he replied.

"Besides, you gonna pull the trigger come the time?" Makepeace added, noting the discomfort on Jackson's face.

The archaeologist looked almost distraught, that particular comment brought back too many uncomfortable memories. He shook his head slowly. "Thank you, no, I don't think I could do that again!"

"Swell, so I guess the marines are coming with!" Makepeace told him, regarding Janet now. "Doc, how long does he have to be dead before we can assume the organism is out of his system?"

"About 24 hours," Janet replied.

"So we'll need a Sarcophagus on the mothership right?" Makepeace intoned. "Just to be on the safe side?"

"Yes, I'd advise that, Colonel you'll have to ensure that you kill him with the first bullet," Janet told him, her distaste at having said those words evident from her expression. "If the organism gets a change to shut down before he's... it'll hibernate, slow it's own growth down, that much our tests did show us!" 

"Bullet to the heart?" Makepeace enquired, watching the faces of those around the table cringe and contort as he posed the question.

"Should be effective," she replied.

"Well, then I guess I'll use a high powered handgun, make sure the job’s done right!"

"Um, if you're finished discussing how we're going to murder Jack, exactly," Daniel snapped, evidently more uncomfortable with the idea than Makepeace was. "We'd better go."

"General with your permission sir?" Makepeace asked.

"Colonel you have a go, gear up and be ready for departure in exactly 30 minutes!"

Makepeace stood, his eyes skilfully averted from further contact with those around the table, masking his own feelings for the job in hand well enough up to that point not to deem such a deception necessary.  When the time came, he'd have to lift that weapon and pull the trigger, and hope, pray, that Dr. Fraiser, and Major Carter's theory was right.  'Taking a lot on faith' he told himself, maintaining his military persona. He followed Jackson down to the locker room. "We'll tool up on our way out," he instructed.

"Sure," Daniel responded, beginning to dress in his fatigues. He looked across at Makepeace then, thankful that the colonel had demanded to go with him.  He'd pulled a trigger on Jack O'Neill twice since he'd known him, once to save Jack's life, and once to save his own. Third time? That he didn't feel so lucky about!

********

Apophis regarded Zipacna. “A child?” he asked. “Hathor?”

“My lord, I learnt of this before I escaped. Heru’ur has launched motherships to track them. O’Neill possesses the knowledge of the Ancients!” the Goa’uld under lord imparted.

“Was this not a rumour you used to ensure his destruction?” Apophis questioned.

“No my lord, I have seen the power he wields. He controls the Goa’uld technology as if it were Tau’ri, Heru’ur is sure he is able to use this knowledge to conquer the system lords!” Zipacna informed him.

“What of Chronos?” Apophis enquired. “Does he not wish to possess this knowledge for himself?”

“Heru’ur destroyed him.”

“And O’Neill has a child born of his knowledge with Hathor.” Apophis repeated it slowly. “We must possess this child, and the Tau’ri slave who would dare challenge me, he will pay dearly for that, once he has given me the power I need to finally rule this galaxy!”

“Yes my lord!” Zipacna agreed, a smile crossing his arrogant features. “We shall find him.”

Part 5.2

Jack had felt his mind was losing focus. He'd stayed in that room, away from Hathor, away from anyone. Waiting, knowing it would happen.  24 hours had come and gone, and his body had begun to burn up, his arms wrapped around him, shaking now, almost without respite, fighting for breath that came in short gasps, each one inflaming his lungs.

He'd paced the room, worked out as much as he could do physically, before the onset of these symptoms had begun. The journey into moments of near hysteria had infected his mind to the extent that he'd crawled across the floor, climbing into the bed, and concealing himself under the covers.

But then the fever had struck, raging through his body. Somehow he'd stripped himself of the armour, finding the SGC fatigues, which were now soaked in sweat.

"Must, focu..." His voice a whisper, trembling under the ferocity, with the agony that permeated through every fibre, and a throat that was beginning to feel increasingly dry, despite his intake of water.

There was so much incoherence of thought, that nothing felt real, or clear.  He'd tried to use everything he knew to avoid the onset of delirium, yet even with those tools he'd failed.  The ground seemed to be falling away beneath him, frantically he clung to the sheets as if this alone prevented him from entering some dark chasm.    He closed his eyes, it wasn't a voluntary thing, it was instinctual, the bearings had gone, the reason had gone and his mind began to protect him, to isolate him from the pain he felt slicing into every muscle. His body contorted with the intensity of this sustained attack against its systems.

He could see Hathor; feel her calling to him through the pain, the indecision, the confusion. Then there was nothing, the pain, the fear that had crept slowly into those confused lost thoughts, silence, isolation, calm.

Jack opened his eyes, he couldn't feel his hands, could barely see or make out anything in the room, it was empty. Shadows crept across from every corner, the bed on which he sought sanctuary, surrounded by an ominous, unseen foe.  He couldn't find reason, nor anything tangible to focus on, everything was ethereal. 

He heard Daniel Jackson's voice then, criticising his choices, that wonderful moralistic mode that the archaeologist found so easy to aspire to. "Daniel?"

Carter's intense techno-babble, the Gate, the glyphs...Teal'c standing beside him, he could hear his words, but they didn't make sense.  "Carter? Teal'c?" The names fell from his lips, through the rasping of his breath echoing in his ears like empty hollow chambers.

'No! This isn't real, I'm not doing this... not now.'

Silence, his own voice in his head, distant, calling out to him to get a grip, he needed control, needed it now!

'What's happening?  This isn't me, I can't be hearing these things ‘cause they're not real... come on Jack think, concentrate... where the hell am I?  STOP!'

Everything was spinning, the room wouldn't settle, it's not real, he kept telling himself, it's not happening... the room is still, it's my head, my mind... I'm losing control here. I've got to stop... got to focus... need to control.   'Oh God, I wish it would stop... I wish it would go away.'  His hands in front of his eyes, blurred, shaking... 'Focus... must... focus', he wrapped his arms about himself tightly, curling up into a ball, his hands grasping at the fatigues, tearing at the material.

Heru'ur was there now, demanding he acquiesce.  But he wasn't, not really, he couldn't be. He'd stop it, he'd help... someone has to help? Can't take this... silence.

A slow pounding filled his ears, very slow, loud, thunderous... what is it... where is it?  He looked sharply from one point to the next, the images obfuscated, detached, terrified now, the feeling of being watched of being stalked.  There was something else in there with him, an entity he feared and his mind was panic stricken, thrashing around on the bed, on his knees looking for this creature, wild eyed, gripped in sheer terror of an unseen foe that lurked in the shadows, through that hazy red mist that seemed to have descended over his eyes.

Something touched his shoulder and he spun dizzily, falling back, lying there, the tremors fusing the muscles painfully, then releasing them.

"Hush now, our beloved," Hathor told him softly, stroking his face. "We will take away this pain." She leant over him, her lips pressed against his, it wasn't real... he knew it wasn't real!

********

"What is the meaning of this?" Heru'ur demanded, standing imperiously over the two men who had been forced to kneel before him.

"We, um, need your help," Daniel blurted out, looking up at him, uncertain of this formidable foe. "And I think it's safe to say, you need ours!"

The Goa'uld system lord chuckled; a low growling sound that mocked any idea that he, a creature who controlled their very lives, could need the help of slaves.

"You are mistaken, Daniel," he replied. “You have nothing to offer me!”

"No I don't think so," Jackson pushed, Makepeace looking at him askant, unsure of this deliberate defiance.

"What," Heru'ur demanded, "is it you think you can help me with?"

"Finding Jack," Daniel told him, beginning to rise from his knees, the Jaffa lunged his Staff weapon into the archaeologist, sending him back down with a jolt. "OW!"   Jackson exclaimed.

"You know where O'Neill is?" the system lord enquired, waving off the guard who had assaulted Jackson.

"I've got a pretty good idea," Daniel told him, the scowl he wore quickly erased.

"Where?"

"Um, then you'd probably kill us... which, you understand, I'd prefer not to happen."   Jackson risked getting up once more, this time unimpeded. He stood and faced the Goa'uld.

"You expect me, to take you to O'Neill?" Heru'ur asked. "Why?"

"Because the organism that Hathor's using to control Jack will most likely kill him, once that is, she's gotten all the information she wants!" Jackson informed him.

That arrogance the Goa'uld wore like a mask crumbled, the curiosity that now dwelt in those steely blue eyes, told Jackson he had his attention.

"Hathor uses an organism?" he enquired, focusing his regard on Jackson.

"Um, yes, I think you're familiar with Syliias, she apparently is!"

"Then O'Neill is doomed, he can not live without this toxin!" Heru'ur retorted.

"No, you're right he can't, but we have an antidote, a remedy. You get us to the planet and we'll be able to free Jack, and you can kill Hathor!" Daniel offered, his features now contorting as he watched the Goa'uld considering the offer. A moment of insecurity; his eyes looked across at Makepeace, who shrugged.

"Very well, the planet?" Heru'ur asked, his tone marginally more civil.

"Thebes," Jackson imparted, knowing he could now trust the Goa'uld with that information, even if Makepeace had cringed as he'd said it.

"Ra's home world, I should have known!" the Goa'uld system lord stated with a nod, the smirk that crossed his face one borne from that realisation. "We leave immediately!"

Daniel looked a Makepeace now, a smile crossing his own face, relief at the success of his negotiation.

"You play a mighty fine game of poker Dr. Jackson," Makepeace opined.

"Thanks, but it's chess.  I'm a lousy poker player!" Jackson retorted.

********

The light began to invade Jack's eyes as he woke slowly into consciousness.  He sat up abruptly. Hathor was lying asleep beside him, he looked down at her, his eyes closing, a silent curse to himself.

That part hadn't been a dream after all.  Standing, his muscles still aching from the hours they'd spent reacting to withdrawal. "Oh crap!" he gasped.

"Our beloved?" Hathor called, looking up at him.

"Good morning," Jack replied, censuring himself inwardly for being so polite. "Wasn't I supposed to beg for mercy?"

"We could not bear to see our beloved tortured so," she confessed. "Your weakness is apparently one that we share!"

"Sweet," he sighed. "I'd be a lot happier if you'd just let me die, or something!"

The grimace he wore on his face, the disdain in his voice, told the Goa'uld that he did not amuse himself with this assertion, that he believed it.

"We have told you, our beloved, that will never happen!" she snapped. "Join us," She held out her hand. "You are still weak from your battle."

"Look lady, I don't know what part of no you're not getting?" the colonel spat. "But didn't the fact that I didn't beg for mercy from you tell you something?"

"We were told everything by our beloved's show of his willingness to accept the consequences of his own entrapment. But does he forget the passion that he shares with us so easily?"

"Passion?" Jack intoned, sitting back down on the bed sharply, more out of that physical weakness, than from desiring to be so close to her.  His hand reached up and grasped his temples, hiding his eyes. "I wouldn't call getting a fix passion!"

"A fix?" Hathor enquired, allowing the covers to fall from her body as she sat up.

Jack turned away from her. "It's an Earth term, get someone hooked on something, they need a fix to feel right!" he imparted, shaking his head once more at his own politeness in explaining himself.

"Then perhaps we are now our beloved’s addiction," she told him, reaching out and touching his back. Her hand warm against his skin, he felt his body react to her caress and moved away.  "Perhaps our beloved would feel more comfortable bathed?"

"Fine by me, as long as you're not thinking of joining me!" Jack snapped, flinching, his head throbbing, the shooting pains that began in his lower back, now coursing up his spine and stabbing into his neck.

Hathor climbed from the bed, wrapping her golden robe around her nakedness.  Jack maintained his own dignity with the sheet pulled across him.

"Come," she told him. "We shall take our beloved to be bathed, he will feel greatly refreshed once he has done so, and then we will discuss our plans!"

Jack's malicious grimace scowled back at her, yet she merely smiled, impervious to his disdain.   "Fine!" he snapped, reluctantly following her.  More censure for his submission.  She took his hand, the tiny fingers gently closing, their warmth sending a shiver of delight through his body.  He wanted that touch, or something inside him seemed to crave it, he couldn't decide which!

***********

Carter looked at her watch, another heavy sigh. She leant over the microscope once more and studied the molecular structure of the organism.  The tests that she and Janet had run, proving conclusively, once the organism was starved of living tissue, it was destroyed instantaneously. It seemed to require the nervous system in a living form to carry its strain continually.

"Sam?" Janet called from the doorway.

Carter looked up. "Hi, I was just double checking," she replied, without needing Janet to pose the question.

"Same result?" Fraiser enquired.

"Yep! Looks like you were definitely right," Sam concluded.

"So wanna get a coffee?"

Sam nodded, turning off the light beside her workstation.

"Yeah, why not, can't do anything else around here," she responded.

"We haven't heard back from Dr. Jackson or Colonel Makepeace, which could be a good sign," Janet told her as the pair walked to the commissary.

"Yeah, I just hope they can reach the colonel in time," Sam sighed. "It'd be nice to get things back to normal around here."

Janet nodded. "Yes it would," she agreed, lifting a tray and heading toward the snacks. "I miss him too!" Pointedly.

Carter smiled. "Never thought I'd say this, but hearing him tell me to shut up is sounding pretty good right now," she laughed.

"I know, all my patients are so easy going recently... with the exception of Hathor.  I miss the challenge of being able to tell a superior officer to follow doctor’s orders," Janet grinned. "Never a dull moment with the colonel, and that's for sure!"

"Ladies?" Major Davis greeted. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure!" Carter said, a smile toward him.

"Thanks, it's a little quiet, thought I'd take the opportunity to grab something to eat," he explained.

"So Paul," Carter asked, as the three of them found a table close by, "what's the consensus on Colonel O'Neill at the Pentagon?"

Davis scooped his sandwich from the tray, unwrapping it. "Well, I really don't know, General Vidrine seems to think we can probably overlook most of his indiscretions with the Goa'uld, and write it off as alien interference, which everyone seems fairly happy with," he said.

"What no impending court martial?" Janet enquired casually, feeling anything but.

"No, there's been no mention of that," Davis responded, a smile crossing his features then. "Actually, based on his latest list of exploits, I think the colonel's stock went way up with most of the joint chiefs!" he admitted. “Not every day one of ours is able to infiltrate the Goa’uld so effectively!”

"Wow! That's got to be a first," Carter exclaimed.

"We've run a bit of interference, probably a lot more than we should have, given the Colonel's lack of respect for authority, but I think they're willing to accept, that on the whole, Apophis being weakened and, from what we’re hearing, Chronos wiped out, that we've gained a lot from the experience!"

Janet looked at Sam; both women lifted their coffee cups simultaneously. "Great!"   In unison.

********

"A week?" Daniel replied incredulously, once Heru'ur had deemed it necessary to respond to the question of time Jackson had asked on several occasions.

"Possibly less," the Goa'uld added, looking across at Jackson. "There are meteor clouds in many pockets of that system," he explained.

"Oh," Jackson's eyebrows climbing dubiously upward. "Um, well that's not good right?"

"Our technology, at a greatly reduced rate, can safely navigate through this," Heru'ur retorted confidently.

Makepeace exhaled loudly, puffing his cheeks out as he did so. "Can I ask a question?"

Heru'ur had paid him no attention until now; his sardonic glare fell assertively on the colonel.

"What if Jack's situation means an all out war?" he asked, finally feeling confident to do so when the Goa'uld didn't censure him.

Heru'ur's features broke into a broad smirk. "O'Neill will not launch against me," he replied confidently. "The control of his mind is limited to a natural weakness for pleasure and emotions that humans crave."

Makepeace looked at Jackson, shaking his head slowly. "Should have known!" he remarked, trying to keep his own amusement at that particular statement to himself.

********

Jack slipped into the bath, laying back into the hot water, a sweet aroma relaxing him almost the moment he submerged.

Hathor sat on the side looking down at him, her fingertips softly stroking his face. The colonel offered no objection, enjoying her touch.

"Tell us, our Pharaoh," she asked. "Why would you be so willing to die, to deny yourself the pleasure of our company?"

"You have to ask?" Jack replied leisurely.

"Do you not desire us, as you have done in the past?"

"Hey!" His eyes opened, he looked directly into hers now. "None of that was real, the whole damn thing was all drug induced!"

"Our beloved is so sure?" Hathor's tone less assertive. “For him, perhaps, but for us?  We have become very accustomed to our Pharaoh’s presence.”

"Can't think of any other reason to jump in bed with a snake," he retorted bitterly. "And quit doing that!" Little conviction in his tone then, her words having more of an affect than he’d realised, his face moving into her caress.

"Since our beloved is certain we have tricked him, perhaps he would have the strength reborn to prevent us from touching him," she replied, standing, disrobing and stepping into the bath with him, his eyes not completely averting, enjoying the view her nakedness offered.

"Yeah, right," he muttered. "Like I'd have a choice right?"

She drew herself to him, feeling his arm spontaneously wrap around her waist, pulling her close.  Jack ground his teeth together petulantly at this reaction.  "Like now?" he insisted.

"But your reliance upon the fever is gone, and yet still you are unable to push us away!" she remarked, her lips brushing across his cheek. "Tell us, looking into our eyes, that your desire for us is gone?"

The colonel took a deep breath, the tension permeating his body responding to the urges he felt, frustrating him.  He didn't want her, how could he?   "It's a facade," he argued. "I'm not doing this, this isn't me!"

Hathor pulled herself on top of him, looking down, feeling the tension as her body laid against his.   "You are mistaken," she whispered, kissing his lips, no response. "Our desire is borne from yours, our beloved."

Jack tensed his muscles still further, sucking in a deep breath and holding it, looking up into her gaze. Exhaling slowly, his hands reached around her, caressing her softly, almost desperate, yet controlled. His lips covered hers then, passionately expressing the desire that built within him.

Her eyes lit up as they parted. “We are indeed pleased to feel your passion, our beloved,” she whispered.

"You'd be wrong about that," he told her, lifting her from him, moving out from underneath her and to the other side of the circular bath. “It’s not passion, it’s...” He looked unsure himself then. “Drugs!”

“We can wait!” she told him confidently.

She looked amused, the smile she offered him one of an almost affectionate embrace. "Our beloved is so confused, unable to discern the true nature that coverts us, no matter," she said, dismissively now. "We are patient." She stood before him, knowing, without needing to look into those soft brown eyes, that he watched her.

Alone, Jack submerged beneath the water, disturbed by what she said, then dismissing it as simply another Goa'uld trick, trying to mess with his mind.

He'd yet to work out how to get away from her, but something was beating at the back of his thoughts.  Why had she come and stopped it?  That bothered him, there had to be a reason, a good reason.

She cared enough not to want to see him in that much pain? An ironic chuckle, no it had to be something else, she was bluffing him big time about something... what?

He lay back in the warmth of the water; it's soothing effects slowly eroding the pain from the aching muscles. His eyes closed, plenty of time to think about it, he reasoned, plenty of time!

*******

Jacob descended the ramp, smiling at Hammond, saving the broad grin for his daughter as both greeted him.

"Any news Dad?" Sam asked impatiently, barely allowing him to wrap his arms around her before interrogating him.

"Yes actually, our operatives said that both Dr. Jackson, and Colonel Makepeace are safely aboard Heru'ur's mother ship on route to Thebes. They'll probably be there in a matter of days!"

"That's good news Jacob," Hammond acknowledged. "How long before we'll know if they've managed to extract Colonel O'Neill?"

"Hard to say, we've got people aboard those vessels, but they're way out of our range, even with a long range device that we’ve developed," Jacob replied.

"So I guess all we can do is wait," Hammond lamented. "And hope that Colonel Makepeace and Dr. Jackson can successfully carry out their plan!"

"Looks that way, so I've got some free time on my hands, anyone care for a meal?"

Jacob enquired.

"Um, I think I'll pass Dad, I've got a lot to do, and I don't really want to leave the base right now," Carter responded.

"Looks like it's just you and I, old friend," Hammond told him.

Jacob looked at his daughter. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a little restless!" she admitted. "This whole thing's so out of our hands."

"I know, it's always the worst part of any mission," Jacob said. "The waiting!"

*******

Makepeace had checked his handgun over more times than Daniel could count, as the two men sat alone together in the quarters Heru'ur had insisted they remain in for the latter part of the journey.

"Colonel?" Daniel asked. "We have to wait until we've managed to get Jack out of the facility and onto the mothership before you um...."

"Affirmative, be hard carrying him!" Makepeace agreed. "Think Heru'ur can get us in there?"

"Well we'd better hope so, this isn't going to be very effective if he can't," Jackson admitted. "It's not so much the getting in part that bothers me though, more the getting out part!"

Makepeace nodded thoughtfully. "Have to admit, that part of the plan is a little ropey, depending on Jack to help us is pretty risky."

"Well why wouldn't he?" Daniel enquired. "You heard what Heru'ur said, it's just his um, well, he's not affected totally right?"

"So the snake says!" Makepeace commented.

"Yeah, I know, a lot depending on... not much!" Jackson sighed.

"You said it!" Makepeace concurred.

The two men were silent once more, both thinking his own thoughts, both wondering if they stood a chance in hell of getting O'Neill, and themselves, out in one piece.

********

Hathor had Kalim brought before her sneering down at the Jaffa. "Where did you take our child?" she demanded.

Kalim remained silent, lowering his eyes from her intense regard.

"You will tell us, or you will die!" she insisted.

"If I must die, then so be it!" he responded, his eyes now meeting hers, with a defiant disregard of her threats.

Raising her hand above his head, the ribbon device activated, it's vicious intent racking his mind with intense pain.

"Tell us, and we will spare you," she offered.

The silence her answer, she unleashed the frustration of O'Neill's rejection of her, onto the Jaffa with deadly effect, overwhelming the mind with the force of her hatred.

"Take his body to his Pharaoh," she ordered, "and tell him we shall not be denied any longer!"

The terrified Jaffa moved forward and lifted the lifeless body, dragging him from her sight, feeling the burning glare from the eyes of the goddess they were beginning to fear.

********

Jack woke with a start, still in the bath, it's water chilling him. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, climbing out quickly, wrapping one of the large bath towels around him, shivering.

The doors to the chamber flung open, the two Jaffa who proceeded in, blocking his view of the body their comrades brought to him, until he was finally laid on the floor.

Jack's eyes narrowed. "She did this?" he asked, kneeling beside Kalim's body.

"He would not tell her where she might find your child my lord," one of the Jaffa's responded.

"We got a Sarcophagus right?" Jack enquired, standing up, regarding the obviously fearful faces he beheld.

"Yes my lord."

"Well put him in it!" Jack demanded, looking around for where he'd left his clothes.

"But my lord, it is forbidden."

"Hey! Whose damn side are you on?" O'Neill snapped, pulling his trousers on. "Do as I say now!" His tone more imperious.

The Jaffa bowed their heads to him, lifting the body of their commander, carrying him from the room.

"Man is she gonna get it!" he snapped, dragging his tee shirt over his head.   He paused at the door for a moment, looking at the three passageways ahead of him, a grimace. "This could take a while," he opined with a heavy sigh.

*******

Hathor looked at the servant. "You are sure," she asked.

"Yes my queen, the child was taken to Chulak, from where Kalim hails!"

Hathor looked away from the woman now. "You have done well, for this you shall be rewarded!" she told her.

The doors to the chambers burst open under O'Neill's forceful impetus, he stood in the entrance looking at her.

"You killed my first prime?" he snapped, moving toward her now, the disdain etched into those handsome features.

"He defied us," Hathor retorted. She looked at the servant. "Leave us!"

"Really, well that just breaks my heart," Jack intoned.

"Our beloved should realise that we shall do as we please." She approached O'Neill.

"Yeah, well I'll make you a deal," the colonel told her. "You lay off the damn killing, and I'll do what you want, give you whatever you want, but there's something else I want in return."

She regarded him, pleased with this response.  "And that is?"

"No more you and me, no more of that getting physical and touching stuff, makes me sick to my stomach!" he snapped.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Our beloved is a poor liar," Hathor retorted. "And what he asks is not possible."

Jack looked confused staring at her with contempt. "What?"

"The very thing our Pharaoh requires to live, is created by our body, absorbed by his," she told him.

Jack took a deep breath. "Excuse me?" Incredulity swept his face.

Hathor's smile sickened him, he wanted to wipe it from her face, but still he couldn't bring himself to use the hand device, added to the fact that if what she said was true, he'd be condemning himself equally to that promised slow and painful death.

"Our beloved is only now realising that we own him," she said imperiously, her hand resting on his arm, body pressing against his. "You belong to us!" Her eyes met his, with an obvious delight in that fact.

He pushed her back away from him.  "I'm not buying that," he snarled furiously.

"Perhaps our beloved would like to spend another night without our embrace to prove to him we speak the truth?" she offered.

"GOD!" O'Neill yelled in frustration. "How the hell did I ever let you near me?" The disgust in himself was emanating through his whole being.

"Our Pharaoh is most attractive when he abuses us so," she told him, adding to the fury that built up in him.

"Don't!" he warned, backing away from her, unable to control his anger.

"We are destined to be together for all eternity, to deny this is folly!" she told him, pursuing the colonel as he backed away.

"Are you nuts?" he demanded, bemused by this assertion. He was confused by the feelings that overwhelmed his mind; the desire wasn’t real. He told himself this emphatically, and yet still he would rather have been in her arms at that moment than opposing her.

She finally backed him against the large golden doors, her hands on his chest. Her eyes locked with his, his breathing increasing in rate, heart pounding in his chest.

"What do you want from me?" he asked her finally, those unyielding eyes tearing into his soul.

"We want our beloved to kneel before us, and pledge his allegiance to us," she told him softly. "To share in our victories, to share our body and be at our side of his own choosing."

Jack's eyes widened at each demand, closing fleetingly to avoid her gaze.  "I can't do that," he whispered. "I'd be lying!"

"Is it really so hard for you to see what you really want?" she challenged. "Deny us, tell us that you do not want our touch?"

The colonel gulped in huge breaths of air, trying to stop his body trembling at the thought of becoming intimate, of feeling her nudity against his own.

"No!" His tone deepened, desperate to be assertive, desperate to mean it.

She reached for the clasps on the garment that already barely covered her, letting it drop to the floor. "We already have you, our beloved, you are just too foolish to see it!" she cooed, her lips brushing his ear. Her breath sent shivers down his back.

His hands clenching and unclenching, O'Neill looked into her eyes, his lips meeting hers, bringing his hands around her, pulling the Goa'uld queen to him as forcefully as he dare.

The passion of his need flowed ceaselessly through his body. His lips engulfed hers.   Hathor moved into him more, responding with the same desire.

Jack felt torn, allowing his left hand to drop down to his side, fumbling for the knife, the blade cutting into his fingers viciously, moving his hand lower to gain a proper purchase.

His eyes closed, their lips locked together, he brought the knife around behind her back, the tip poised between her shoulder blades, his hand beginning to shake, he pulled her closer to him, drawing the weapon away, ready to strike.

*******

Heru'ur entered the quarters where Jackson and Makepeace had just finished eating some of those totally tasteless rations.  The two men had been over every aspect of how they would get Jack to listen to them.

"We are close to the passage of Nylor," Heru'ur informed them.

"Um, okay," Jackson replied. "That's a good thing right?"

Heru'ur regard Jackson with disdain, since it had been that which the Asgaard had given up, in order to obtain Earth's place in the protected planets treaty, it had a special significance to the Goa'uld.

"It is a passage protected by our treaty with the Asgaard, and a quicker route to that which we seek!" he imparted. 

"Oh yes," Daniel recalled, almost the moment the words had left the system lord’s lips. "We, um, we’re included for that right?"

"As you say," Heru'ur replied. "You will avail us now of this antidote you possess to free O'Neill from the toxin?"

"Um, well that's a little complex," Jackson retorted, looking at Makepeace, unsure of how much information to impart.

The Goa'uld regarded him cynically. "Explain!" he demanded.

"Well, we er, we have to kill him," Daniel blurted out, before Makepeace, who felt they should err on the side of caution, could prevent it.

Heru'ur's eyes reacted immediately, glowing imperiously. "What?"

"Well, the um, organism would die out completely and then we could revive Jack in the sarcophagus, without it re-infecting his system," Jackson explained.

"And this would work?" the Goa'uld replied, seemingly placated by the knowledge.

"Well, we're hoping so, since nothing else we've come up with appears to work!"

The archaeologist's honesty obviously prevailed; Heru'ur turned and left them alone once more.

"Was that strictly wise?" Makepeace enquired.

"I think so, he seemed to accept it," Daniel told him.

"Yeah, of course he accepted it Daniel, he doesn't need us around anymore in case you forgot!" the colonel shook his head.

"Um, oh," Jackson responded, "I see your point, um, whoops!"

"Whoops?" Makepeace repeated, looking bemused. "Remind me again why Jack wanted you in his unit?"

Jackson frowned. "Colonel, Jack's judgment has never been in question before, and I don't happen to believe that Heru'ur will kill us. He's a little eccentric, but he's aware of our importance to Jack!"

"Dr. Jackson, let's hope your judgment is better than O'Neill's, since he's the one currently holding a Goa'uld address, and swapping spit with Hathor!"

Daniel cringed. "Could you be a little less specific!" he complained, the disgust he felt for the remark scowling effectively toward Makepeace.  "I doubt it was from a personal choice Colonel!" he added for good measure.

"I guess we'll find out when we nail her won't we!"

Daniel looked away from him, remembering the glow of happiness he'd seen in Jack's eyes when he had come to Earth to claim Hathor back from the SGC. He closed his eyes.  Leaning his head back against the wall, he hoped, against hope that Jack was just under the influence of a powerful organism, how else would he be freed?

His eyes slid across to Makepeace, checking over the handgun once more, he sighed heavily closing his eyes tight.  That didn't bare thinking about!

Part 5.3

Carter stared up at the stars, Major Coburn sitting next to her on the grass at the top of Cheyenne Mountain.

"They're so peaceful, they make you feel kind of at ease," she admitted to him, resting her chin on her knees, staring out into space at the night sky.  The Stars dotted around a moon almost full. "Even though I know what's out there."

Coburn smiled. "All I see is possible hostiles," he said, glancing across at her. "Must be that military training I guess."

"Oh yeah, that has a habit of taking anything potentially calming out, thanks Jim!" she laughed.

Coburn shook his head, a wry smile crossing his features. "Come up here to get away from it all right?" he asked, realising that Carter probably needed to talk about her fears, and struggling for a way to bring that to the conversation.

"Yeah, I guess," she confessed, stretching her legs out, her hands behind her to keep her balance. "It's a little intense down there right now!"

"Think Dr. Jackson and Colonel Makepeace will be successful in returning Colonel O'Neill to the SGC?" Coburn enquired, deciding to be forthright.

"I have no idea," she replied, a glance back toward the SG2 commander. "If they can't, I guess this whole place will change one heck of a lot."

"How do you mean?" Coburn asked.

"Well, if they don't make it back, I mean, they're really important to this whole project," Carter said, her thoughts, as Coburn had surmised, very much with her colleagues.

"Colonel O'Neill and Daniel have been the cornerstone of this command for so long, I just don't know what will happen if we lose them!"

Coburn nodded, looking back up at the stars.  "Yeah, I think I see exactly what you mean, would change a lot.  Must be hard for you being here, waiting," he asserted, "instead of out there trying to influence it!"

Sam Carter looked at him, a single nod. "With everything that's happened over the last couple of months, yeah, it's been really hard.  And now they're out there relying on help from the Goa'uld." She slowly shook her head. "There's got to be some twisted logic in that somewhere!"

"You wanna go somewhere else? Have a drink talk this through?" Coburn enquired,

"I'm buying?"

Carter smiled at him. "Ordinarily, yeah, I just don't think I can leave right now, it doesn't feel right!"

*******

Slumped against the doors that he’d thrown open to confront Hathor only minutes before, Jack O'Neill wore an empty expression across those handsome features. 

His eyes stared almost trance-like out into the vast chamber.  His bloodstained hands rested in his lap, his knife close by where it had fallen.    

He couldn't hear anything, just the sound of his heart beating slowly in his ears, his vision blurred, but that could just have been the tears that filled his eyes.

He didn't know how long it had been, just that when he'd felt the knife tear into her, the shock resonating in those clear blue pools he had gazed so longingly into - almost everything else had become surreal, happening in another time. 

He'd felt her body tense, then the pain biting into his chest, as she'd slammed him back into those golden doors, it felt like suffocation.

He’d looked into those eyes, as they were locked together, wanting her more then than he had done before, and without even really wanting to harm her, so lost in his desire, he had feebly attempted to use the knife, to control himself.

The power of the ribbon device had thrown her back too, away from him.   At that moment he had thought, I should have meant it; I didn't mean it, why? Realising that now, that as he'd come to wield the knife, to finally rid himself of his tormentor, that he'd been torn, in two minds.  Could he live without her?  His self-preservation rule kicked in, it was not just the emotional aspect of whatever feelings may have been buried inside him, but the physical, what she'd done to him.  Would he survive without her?

But that hardly mattered now; he could feel the blood choking in his throat, the labour of a rasping in his ears, the sound he'd finally identified in a state of complete shock, was his breath. The ribs, had to have punctured one, or both of his lungs, the force of that assault so close that he'd felt them crack.

Hathor stepped forward, looking down at the colonel, hearing the gasping sounds he made. The furious candescence of her eyes beginning to fade. 

The blade hadn't embedded deep enough to cause her real harm, her reaction to his intent so quick, he had barely been able to break the skin. She was merely shocked, defending her life.

"Our beloved?" she spoke softly, almost unable to hear her own voice, pausing, the scorn she felt, poured into the words. "We are disappointed in you!"

Jack managed to look up at her; his head felt light, peaceful, exhaustion weakening him, the aching spreading through his limbs. Pain tore into him with each breath.  There was no clarity to his thoughts anymore, he could see her, yet she wasn't completely visible to him, a shadowy figure looming in a chaotic distortion his eyes perceived.

Hathor knelt beside him, looking down momentarily at the weapon with which O'Neill had attempted to end her life, a curious regard for such a useless tool.  "We will save you our beloved, do not fear," she whispered, her fingers caressing his face. "Even if he does give us cause to let him die!"

Jack's eyes closed, his chest rising and falling more rapidly as he began choking on the liquid that coursed into his throat, pitching forward, retching violently, blood spattered his clothes, the effort causing him to moan softly.  Allowing himself to slump back once more into the glyphs, his eyes closed, the blood beginning to cascade in a steady flow from the corner of his mouth.

"No!” She yelled furiously. “We will not let you die our beloved, hush now, we will save you." There was a softness, a desperation, in her voice. Standing, she pulled him free of the doors, her eyes narrowed as she heard the gasps of pain that escaped his lips, looking down at him, throwing the doors open.

"Jaffa Kree!"

The two guards instantly came towards her. "Kree, shel re't O'Neill, Sarcophagus!" she ordered, watching the Jaffa carefully lift their master, who managed only faint sounds of discomfort, and carry him from the chamber.

“Be careful, fools!” she snapped.

It seemed like an eternity before they reached the tomb, where the Sarcophagus, its golden surface lined with the symbols of Ra, was kept.

Hathor moved around the Jaffa, activating the Goa'uld device, watching as Jack was placed inside, his eyes beginning to lose their light, as the golden arms closed over him.

"We will see our Pharaoh once more," she whispered, her hands resting on the top of the Sarcophagus. "Leave us!" she demanded, watching the Jaffa disappear immediately at her behest from the chamber, leaving her alone, her hands tracing across the surface of the device.

"We shall protect our beloved always," she cooed softly. "We are indebted to him for our life, for our child, and when he awakens we will pledge our love for him, and he for us, only then shall we find the secrets he hides."

She climbed on top of the Sarcophagus, laying her face against it. "We will be with our Pharaoh," she whispered, her eyes glowing a smile sweeping her features, "and he will serve us once more!"

******

Makepeace stood up as the two Jaffa entered the quarters he and Daniel were still confined too.

"Hey fellas what's up?" he asked, looking across dubiously at Jackson.

"My lord Heru'ur bids you to him," Nefir told them.

"Okay," Jackson agreed, following the two Horus guards from the room, Makepeace shrugged, secondary to Jackson.

The Goa'uld System Lord stood at the Pel'tac staring out into space.

"Daniel Jackson," he acknowledged, his hand sweeping out toward the planet. "This is Thebes!"

"Wow! Um, that was quick... so?" Daniel responded.

"We have not had a response from O'Neill, several times we have sent messages," Nefir told Jackson.

"Um, bad thing right?"

"Why don't we just go down there and check out the lay of the land?" Makepeace enquired, flinching slightly under the glare of the Goa'uld.

"The defences of this planet are vast!" he snapped. "O'Neill's armies are strong, to attempt such an act would be foolish!"

"I thought you said he wouldn't attack you?" Daniel pointed out, confused by this news.

"Since he does not respond, we must assume that he cannot," Heru'ur asserted. "If Hathor is in control of your friend, she is formidable an adversary!"

"Greater than Heru'ur?" Daniel ventured, knowing that this wouldn't exactly please the Goa'uld.

"She is the mother of all Pharaohs, many thousands of years old, her knowledge of this world far greater than our own!" the Goa'uld countered.

Jackson looked a little startled by Heru'ur's admission. "She scares you?" he asked, without thinking.

Makepeace shook his head, Jackson's often naive ability to say all the wrong things, would probably only serve to irritate the Goa'uld.

Heru'ur continued to look out into space, turning to observe this astute archaeologist, his knowledge of Hathor far out weighed that of the Tau'ri -  her battles with Ra legendary.  He had seen the power she possessed, now with the possibility that she had obtained the power of an enemy that had long eluded the Goa’uld; he was not prepared to risk engaging her so openly.

"Even Ra couldn't destroy her could he?" Jackson surmised correctly, looking across at Makepeace. "So I guess I can see why you'd be cautious!"

"So what do we do?" Makepeace enquired.

"I'll go," Jackson offered. "If you need to see what's going on down there I'm probably your best bet, Jack might not kill me," he reasoned.

"Dr. Jackson I can't allow you to do that," Makepeace snapped, surprised that with the Goa'uld backing off, Jackson would be that stupid.

"Very well, Daniel Jackson," Heru'ur agreed.

"Well that is why you asked us to come up here right?" Daniel replied, ignoring the assertions of Makepeace.

Heru'ur did not respond.  "Prepare a Shre'ma!" he snapped at Nefir.

"Daniel, can I talk to you for a minute?" Makepeace insisted, grabbing Jackson by the arm and leading him away from the Goa'uld.

"Colonel, there's no other alternative, we need to get on the planet and see what's going on," Daniel argued.

"Are you totally whacked?" Makepeace demanded. "I realise there's an urgency here but we're not even sure if Jack will give a damn if Hathor wants to kill you. Hell, Jack might be so far gone he'll do it himself!"

Jackson shook his head. "Jack would never do that, no matter what influence she has on him, and I'm still assuming, if Heru'ur's right, we're talking of the physical kind here!" he asserted. "And why did we come all this way if we weren't prepared to take risks?"

"Now I know you're losing it, or did you forget his display back on that planet when we had Hathor under control!" Makepeace exhaled long and hard, his cheeks puffed out, the stubborn expression, the archaeologist’s face brooking no denial. "Okay, say you get down there, and I can't, can you kill him?" he asked.

Daniel looked a little shocked at the suggestion, reticence, uncertainty swept across those blue eyes, no longer shielded by his customary glasses. "Well, I've done it before right?" he replied, without much conviction, as the image of being aboard Thor's ship flooded into his mind.

"Well I hope you're right Daniel, because if he's still running around singing her praises, that's exactly what you'll have to do!" the Colonel ordered.

"Yeah, I know," Jackson confirmed. "I know!"

*******

"Heru'ur is hailing O'Neill," Kalim told Hathor, surprised to see her astride the Sarcophagus. Hathor sat up. "What?" she spat furiously. "Raise our armies!"

"Our lord commands us," Kalim replied, adamantly, knowing O'Neill's loyalty toward Heru'ur, following his daring exploits to save him from Apophis.

"You dare to defy us?" Hathor roared.

"I do only as bid by my lord," Kalim insisted, turning, about to leave.

"You will obey us, or you will die... once more!" she added, for menace.

"Since our lord has seen fit to redeem my life, perhaps he will once more!" Kalim retorted defiantly.

Hathor raised the hand device, unleashing a powerful surge of energy, felling the Jaffa once more, yet this time without killing him. "You will obey us!" she asserted.

The Sarcophagus began to open, the Goa'uld moving quickly.  She looked across at the Jaffa furiously, then back to O'Neill as he sat up sharply, his eyes scanning the room, trying to get his bearings.

"My lord," Kalim said immediately, standing up, "Heru'ur hails you!"

"What? Where am I?" Jack asked, totally disorientated.

"You are here our beloved, and we shall respond to Heru'ur," Hathor asserted.

"NO!" Jack snapped, finally able to think clearly, "Kalim, tell H, I'm a little out of it right now would ya?"

Hathor turned, her expression furious. "Have we not proven that we are capable of destroying our beloved?" she snapped.

"Yeah, in fact, thanks for that, and back at ya!" Jack intoned, climbing from the sarcophagus. "And have I told you how much I hate those things!"

Hathor frowned at him. "We are not pleased!" she retorted.

"We usually aren't!" the colonel spat, frowning at her, yet unable to maintain that regard for any length of time, his eyes smiling at the disdain on her face. "And the next time I tell you not to bring me back to life?"

"We need our beloved, he will bring us the ultimate power within the Goa'uld!"

"What am I?" Jack demanded then, facing her, his features contorting furiously as he tried to clear his mind, to think straight. "The national grid?"   Shaking his head the colonel turned and left the chamber, stopping outside the doorway, looking right then left.

"Okay, so which way is the damn communication device?" he asked, once more vexed at this new location, and it's many corridors. "I feel like a damn rat in a maze!" He threw his arms up in frustration. "Hathor!"

She moved toward him, her hands to his face, pulling his lips to hers. “We love our beloved,” she whispered, as their lips parted.

“What?” His eyes seemed to widen further as he allowed those words to sink in.

“Did our Pharaoh not hear us?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think I heard ya!” he replied, incredulously. “Why now? Where’s this coming from?”

“We have always held a special place in our heart for our beloved, yet since he refuses to accept that we were unable to show this, we are prepared to make an exception,” she confessed. “We shall never hurt our beloved, or our child, if our Pharaoh will pledge himself to us?” Her eyes seemed to almost implore his acquiescence.

Jack moved back, uncertain of how this news made him feel. “Wait a minute... stop that, it’s,” he paused then, his eyes smiling at her. “This is crazy,” he said softly.

“Tell us, tell us that you, our beloved, cannot live without us?” she implored.

“I can’t,” Jack replied, “live without you... and I don’t know if it’s the drugs, the damn Sarcophagus, or my brains being slightly screwed up from that damn thing!” He gestured towards her ribbon device. “But I know I can’t.”

She smiled at him then, a smile he returned. “But I can’t stay either,” he added. “I’ve gotta go back!”

"Our Pharaoh would be unwise to contact Heru'ur since he will undoubtedly attempt to destroy us," Hathor asserted. “And why would our beloved wish to return to such a place, without us?”

"He's not such a bad judge of character after all then hah?" Jack retorted, that familiar grimace crossing his features. “Look, we’re just... I mean I’m just, I don’t belong here.”

"Our beloved vexes us!" Hathor spat, moving around in front of him. "We demand he tells us immediately the secrets of the Ancients!" Her eyes glowed furiously at him, the familiar Goa'uld tone permeating her voice.

"Oh right," Jack mocked, his eyebrows foisted toward his hairline. "That's gonna make all the difference!" He turned, looking up and down the long hallways branching off in many different directions. "You know maybe you might consider leaving me dead next time then hah? And forgetting all those declarations of love, which you clearly just said to mess with my mind!  Now where's the damn device?" Jack vociferated, anger crossing his features.

Hathor turned, leading him toward it. "Our beloved did not die," she asserted. "We ensured that he lived!  His life belongs to us!"

"I don't think so," O'Neill argued. "In fact I'm thinking that right now, you ought to be the one trying to figure out how to get the hell out of here before Heru'ur and his armies come pay you a visit!"

Hathor stopped, regarding the now overly confident colonel. "We are not interested in the ideas of he who would continually challenge us!" she snapped.

Jack sighed heavily. "Still gotta have the last word!" he complained.

"We do not intend to let what we have worked so hard for, simply elude us," Hathor contested. "Since our beloved is clearly unable to understand this fact, we shall be left with no alternative but to ensure your loyalty!"

"Nagging!" Jack snapped, shaking his head, his eyes turned heavenward. "And I gotta wonder, what can you possibly do to me that you haven't already done... exactly?" He faced her once more, his eyes fixed on hers.

"We know where our child is," Hathor told him triumphantly. "Our most loyal servant has already been despatched to bring the child to us!"

Jack looked surprised, shaking his head. "Not gonna happen," he asserted.

"Our Pharaoh doubts our word?" she questioned, the supercilious expression sweeping her face that underlined her own confidence.

"Nope, I don't doubt you, I just can't let you harm the kid," Jack replied, wondering exactly how he could prevent it, but unwilling now, to cave into her threats, his anger too great, his urgency to find a way out becoming almost overwhelming.

"Then you will do as we bid?" she enquired, her hand reaching out, touching his face.

He grabbed her hand, squeezing it viciously, throwing it aside. "Nope not gonna do that either, see as near as I can figure, I've done the whole almost dying bit, so we're even on that score," he intoned.  "I'm gonna go back, where I belong!" A grimace crossed his face as her eyes glowed furiously at him.  "You want to stop me, kill me... again!"

The Goa'uld looked perplexed, "Without us, you will die, and on Earth there will be no sarcophagus!"

Jack nodded slowly. "Yeah, you know you're probably right about that!" he said, turning and continuing his progress toward the communication device.

********

Daniel climbed inside the death glider nervously.  His last two times in this craft, he had been piloted by the exuberant boyishness of one Colonel Jack O'Neill, which had done little to convince him that this craft was safe!

He tried as best as he could to mentally prepare himself for what he might face on the surface, hoping that finally he could end what, for him personally, had been a particularly long, and very trying few months, culminating he wondered, with what?

The nerves struck again, what if things didn't go right. He knew Jack O'Neill well enough to know that he'd always found a way out, but this wasn't O'Neill he was working with, this was Makepeace. 

"I'm um, ready!" he agreed, as the Jaffa enquired as to his status.

**********

Hathor watched Jack disappear.  She had considered this eventuality, knew that he was willing to die to be free.  She needed the one thing that would ultimately ensure his servility. She headed straight for the surface, where she had already ensured that Jaffa loyal to her would be waiting. 

She had the child, but with Heru'ur poised to attack, she could not risk holding this trophy over the head of O'Neill, who had clearly, for the moment, been lost to her.

Zipacna greeted her as she ascended through the rings aboard the mothership.

"My queen," he greeted.

"We have the child?" Hathor demanded.

"Yes, we have the child," Zipacna replied. "Heru'ur's ships are on the far side of the planet, we will be able to elude them, but we must go now my queen, before the Tau'ri discovers your plans!"

"Very well," Hathor agreed, looking at the Goa'uld who had been willing to betray his vanquisher. "He will pay dearly for his impudence!"

Zipacna smiled to himself, the child would be returned to Apophis, once he could safely free himself from this Goa’uld queen, whom he knew to be a powerful adversary. Apophis, he hoped would be more powerful.

**********

"What do you mean you don't know where she went?" Jack snapped at Kalim, a heavy sigh. "Damn! First I can't get rid of her... and now?"

"We believe she has taken one of your ships, my lord, in search of your child," the Jaffa responded.

"Tell me you hid my kid well?" Jack demanded, turning quickly, panic enveloping his thoughts, "H is gonna have to stop her, god dammit!"

"My lord the ship is out of our reach," Kalim apologised. "The child is on Chulak, my home world, I am sure..."

Jack's intensity, the anxiety that raged inside him, permeated through a terse gaze.

"Sure? How damn sure is sure, exactly?"

"She could not have known," Kalim fell over the words, concerned that he had, after being spared, failed his master.

"Sweet! Great!" Jack exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in pure frustration.

"Jack?" Daniel's voice. O'Neill spun instantly, looking at the archaeologist with a mixture of shock, and relief.

"Daniel? How did you? H?" he asked quickly.

"Um, yeah we convinced him that we could cure you of Hathor," Jackson said, a shrug of his shoulders.

"Got a gun?" O'Neill responded, disdain sweeping his features. "’Cause that might help! I say again, might!"

Jackson's eyebrows climbed instantly into his forehead. "Um, well you're probably closer to the truth than you think there," he remarked. "Where is Hathor anyway?"

Jack cringed inwardly, the grimace, sweeping his face outwardly, more obvious to the archaeologist.  "She's gone after the kid!" he told Jackson.

"What?" Daniel looked confused. "After?"

"I had Kalim take Iceni to anywhere but here, he's put her on Chulak, now Hathor thinks the only way to control me is to get the kid, and hold that over my head!" Jack explained.

"But the organism?"

"Well I told her I didn't care about that, and with H knocking on the door, I guess she figured she needed an advantage. Daniel, we have to go after her!" Jack insisted.

"Oh my God!" Daniel gasped. "Er, yes, um, of course we must, but Jack?” A look of reticence crossed his studied features. “We should er, probably get Makepeace off Heru'ur's ship first!"

"Makepeace?" O'Neill's expression quickly becoming a frown. "What the hell is he doing here?"

Jackson shook his head slowly, not the right time for the truth. "General Hammond insisted, wouldn't let me go without him."

"Great! Kalim, contact H, and tell him it's safe for him and Makepeace to come down to the planet," Jack ordered, a heavy sigh. "You know he's not gonna exactly be reasonable about this whole, searching for the kid thing?"

"Probably not, um, Jack?" Daniel regarded the colonel, lowering his eyes when O’Neill glanced more attentively toward him. "Makepeace has orders to bring you back."

O'Neill looked at the archaeologist. "Not without my kid Daniel, I'm not going anywhere until I know she's safe!" The fire raging in those eyes underlined his thoughts.

"Um, yes I agree, it's just that, well, you can't exactly go after her until we've um?"

Jackson stumbled over the words.

"Spit it out Daniel," Jack insisted, his refrain becoming more impatient.

"The drug Hathor used, it's still in your system right?" Daniel enquired, taking another track.

"I guess?" Jack responded, apprehensively. "You mentioned something about a cure?"

Jackson's troubled expression drew a cynical regard from O'Neill, giving the archaeologist the time he needed to answer.  "Um, yeah we've discovered how to overcome it, but it, well I don't think you're going to like it exactly." Daniel told him.

"D!" Jack exclaimed, marching toward him. "For crying out loud, just say it."

"Remember Aiestrodous, the um, vampire thing... and er, dying?" Jackson's tone was very shaky now.

The realisation of what he was saying hit O'Neill like a thunderbolt. "You've got to be kidding me right?"

"No, according to Fraiser and Sam, it's the only way to destroy it," Jackson confirmed, watching the colonel's features contort from disbelief to disdain.

"Well, isn't that special?" Jack responded, "Makepeace?"

"Um, he volunteered, I guess he thought it would save me from..."

"Shooting me again!" Jack finished the sentence for the struggling archaeologist, "Sweet!  Remind me to thank old doc Fraiser and Carter for this when I get home!"

"Home?" Jackson picked up on that particular word quickly.

O'Neill looked at his friend, the sudden change in his expression. "Look, say I accept what you're saying is true, and there's no other way to cure this thing, if I do this, you've got to promise me you'll let me find my kid before we go back?” he asserted.

Jackson nodded. "I'd never stop you from doing that Jack, you have my word," he agreed.

*********

Makepeace listened to Jackson intently, watching suspiciously as O'Neill spoke with the Goa'uld System Lord.

"Dr. Jackson, I can't make promises, I have my orders!" the colonel insisted, shaking his head. "What makes you think he's telling the truth anyway?"

"I know Jack, Colonel, and I'm in agreement with him," Jackson intoned. "If you had a child under threat of the Goa'uld, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to stop that threat?"

Makepeace looked at him, considering it, although if he allowed himself to be honest, and to stop worrying about orders he'd have agreed in a heartbeat, but he didn't have the luxury Jackson had, he had his duty.   "Look, I can't promise you anything, we'll do what has to be done in order to secure the colonel, after that... well, we'll see!" Makepeace said finally.

"Colonel, I warn you now, you don't know Jack like I do, if you try to force him to go back, it could just backfire on you!" Daniel snapped.

"I'm aware of O'Neill's agenda Doctor," the colonel responded, "I just hope you're aware that we've got orders, and I'm not in the habit of bucking my responsibility."

Daniel nodded. "Neither am I colonel," he replied. "And that includes the one I have to Jack right now, since I gave him my word!"

Makepeace took a deep breath. "Your word Doctor, not mine!" he intoned.

Jackson looked askant. "Don't make me break my word Colonel, I'm not in the habit of betraying the trust of friends." His voice almost a whisper, yet the undertone obvious.

O'Neill now stood between the two men. "You guys figuring out a date or something?" he quipped, knowing exactly, from their posture, and the expressions, that there was clearly conflict between them.

"Just letting Colonel Makepeace know the score," Daniel explained, his brow furrowed, those intense blue eyes steely.

"You got a problem with my intentions Robert?" Jack asked, a step closer to the temporary SG1 commander.

"I have my orders Jack, and that's to bring you back in one piece, if possible!" Makepeace told him honestly, not about to deceive him.

"I appreciate that, but there wasn't a time scale put on this whole deal right?" Jack offered, looking at Jackson. "Daniel's made a promise, and I'd hate either one of you to have to break your word!"

Makepeace acceded, understanding then that he did have an avenue to explore. A nod, "Sure, I think we can manage that!"

"Okay, here's the deal," Jack began, looking from one to the other, "I've convinced H that Hathor has some plans, stuff from the Ancients that he might find useful, told him that since you guys intend to kill me I can't exactly retrieve it."

"He bought that?" Makepeace asked incredulously, watching the Goa'uld disappear from sight.

"He's not a happy camper, says I'm unwise," Jack retorted; a grimace, yet one filled with that droll humour Makepeace was becoming accustomed too. "That hurt!"

Daniel couldn't resist a smile. "You've got a mothership with a sarcophagus right?"

"Nope, she took that one, so I guess if you're gonna do this, we need to do it here," Jack told them both.

Makepeace looked at him, then at Jackson. "No time like the present then," he agreed.

Jack looked at little surprised at this enthusiasm, a sideways inclination with his head.   "That makes me feel so much more confident," he replied, holding out his hand.

Daniel's eyes widened as he watched O'Neill examine the weapon that Makepeace intended to use.

"Should do the job," Jack confirmed, handing it back to Makepeace. "Okay let's not waste time here.  Daniel, you stay here, I doubt you wanna see this!"

Jackson looked surprised. "I'd rather be there, um, actually," he admitted, wondering why he would, since Makepeace had spared him the job.

Jack regarded the archaeologist with an air of utter amazement. "What? Why?"

Daniel looked totally self-conscious now. "I don't know, I just feel like I should be there," he replied.   O'Neill's incredulous expression caused him to look away.

"Okay ladies, shall we?" Makepeace asked. "Better do it where the Sarcophagus is, since we don't wanna have to carry your body too far."

"Gee thanks!" Jack quipped. "Hate you to go to trouble on my account!"

Makepeace frowned. "I've got to be honest with you Jack, this isn't gonna be easy,” he admitted. "Getting a knot in my stomach just thinking about it,"

O'Neill shook his head. "I could do it myself Robert, if it's a problem?" he offered, feeling slightly sick to his stomach thinking about it now, but, he reasoned, needs must!

"Are we going to have a debate here?" Daniel enquired, beginning to get a similar knot to the one Makepeace described.

"No, we should probably just go and do it, right?" Jack stated, exhaling air from his lungs quickly, as he felt suddenly dizzy.

"Good!" Makepeace said, looking at Jackson, his arm extended. "Shall we?"

"Um, yeah, we probably should," Daniel replied.

The three men stood still, none making a move.  "Oh for crying out loud, come on!" Jack intoned, leading them toward the sarcophagus, his stride not as earnest as he'd perhaps intended it to be.

Makepeace looked down, taking a deep breath before following Jackson, who felt equally uneasy.

Jack entered the chamber, waiting, the two men followed him inside slowly.   He looked at Makepeace. "Just tell me you're a good shot?"

"Sniper class A1, class A with a handgun," Makepeace told him.

Jack nodded. "Okay, good enough," he replied, finding the words cracking slightly as they left his mouth, which was now decidedly dry.

Makepeace checked the chamber, Daniel stood with his back to the marine, looking at O'Neill, whose eyes seemed slightly bigger, his hands clenching and unclenching.

"Come on Robert..." he snapped.

"Relax!" Makepeace snapped at O'Neill, who flinched, thinking he'd brought the gun up.

"Hey! That's easy for you to say!" Jack retorted, his eyes wider, pupils growing larger by the second.

Daniel stepped closer to O'Neill. "Jack, look at me okay?" he offered a feint smile.

O'Neill smiled back, although it quickly became a grimace. Makepeace raised the gun.

Part 5.4

Makepeace felt his hand shaking, gripping the gun tighter in an effort to make it stop, a curious aching in his knees, giving off the feeling of being slightly weakened, his throat felt dry, but that he could put down to the intensely hot conditions inside the pyramid. 

He looked at O'Neill who was staring right back at him. Despite Jackson’s best efforts to distract him, Jack O'Neill was intent on watching this bizarre and unnerving event to its climax.    If the reality of pulling the trigger was a little more daunting than merely suggesting that he could do it, facing O'Neill, those intensely bemused eyes judging him, was completely disconcerting .

The marine colonel frowned heavily, doing everything he could to focus, but self-consciously stripped of any resolve he'd instilled in himself.

"Jack, come on," he complained, "how the hell am I supposed to shoot you when you're looking at me?"

O'Neill looked heavenwards. "Come on Robert, you're a professional, besides I'd hate to move at the last minute, you might miss!" Jack told him, looking rather uncomfortable with that idea. "So head or heart?"

"Well this is surreal!" Jackson sighed, his teeth clenching together as he anticipated the outcome.

"Colonel O'Neill, please? Does it matter? Just look at Daniel, or something," Makepeace demanded, his stomach churning over.

"It matters to me!" Jack snapped, looking at Daniel's disapproving, yet tortured expression.  "I'm just asking," the colonel announced, trying to assuage Jackson's concerns.

"Jack come on, this is hard enough without you making it worse," Daniel pointed out, inching a little closer to the colonel now, as close as he dared with Makepeace brandishing the handgun behind him.

O'Neill looked aghast. "Excuse me?" His tone a couple of octaves higher than he had intended, trying hard to conceal his own fears at being on the wrong end of a bullet once more.

"Jack, shut up and look at me," Daniel insisted.

"His damn hands are shaking," Jack protested, his eyebrows arching upward, the perplexed expression on his face almost comical. "It's not exactly filling me with confidence!"

"Well you're not helping are you?" Daniel argued, his hands reaching out, gesturing at O'Neill. "Just look at me, Jack, please I know it's hard." His eyes filled with empathy, reaching out as surely as was his hand.

O'Neill shuffled uneasily, looking at Jackson, then back at Makepeace.

"Jesus!" Makepeace exclaimed loudly. "Please?"

Jack covered his face with his hand, tugging at the bridge of his nose, the dull ache that had started in his temples seemed to be focused now between his eyes.

"Hey this isn't exactly easy for me either, at least it won't hurt you!" he reminded the marine colonel, looking at Jackson briefly over his hand. "Remind me why we're doing this again?"

Daniel shrugged, frustrated by O'Neill's lack of cooperation. He realised at that moment that his friend was scared and far too proud to say it. He smiled at him.

"Move your hand!" Makepeace snapped.

"Fine," Jack replied. As he did so the gun exploded.

The bullet struck O'Neill in the heart, his eyes widening, looking down at the wound in his chest as if he didn’t quite believe it, then back at Makepeace, and finally, after what seemed like an age, he fell backwards, the sickening thud of his lifeless body hitting the ground echoing in Makepeace’s ears, he stared forlornly toward his fallen comrade.

Daniel startled violently, turning sharply almost in the same movement, seeing Colonel Makepeace over the handgun, the man’s expression blank, the shock of the sudden sound, the look on O'Neill's face, horrifying Jackson more than he thought possible.

Makepeace exhaled, lowering the gun slowly, his hand shaking more consciously as he did so. "Is he?" Almost a whisper, his eyes narrowed, creasing tightly, a grimace of consolation.

Jackson moved forward, falling to his knees beside Jack's body, the bullet wound clean, blood beginning to soak through the clothing, although not as much as Jackson might have envisaged. His glasses steamed up from the involuntary tears that welled in his eyes, silently falling onto the lenses.

He took off his gloves, feeling Jack's neck for a pulse, looking around at Makepeace.

"He's um..." The words fell from his quivering lips. "...dead!"

Makepeace holstered the weapon, turning away, trying to get a grip on his emotions.  He'd killed more men in battle than he could probably remember, many of those had been Jaffa, hostiles; even then he'd felt the pangs of his actions.  Now, knowing that he'd felled a friendly, even with the safety net of the sarcophagus, made him sick to his stomach.

He walked from the chamber, leaning up against the wall outside, the cool air on his cheeks felt like ice.

Daniel took off his jacket, folding and placing it under the colonel's head. Even knowing that the state of death was temporary, offered no relief from a deep sense of sorrow that permeated around his mind.  Knowing that after the sarcophagus had healed him, he'd be hearing O'Neill wisecracking at his expense didn't release him from seeing his friend dead, lifeless, empty.

Makepeace managed to get a grip on himself, a few gulps of that cold air refreshing him enough to walk back into the chamber and regard O'Neill's lifeless body. Jackson was sitting dutifully at his side, his hand reaching out and touching the wound. Borne of some morbid fascination perhaps, he had never experienced death in quite the same way O’Neill appeared to, knowing it was coming. Anticipating the darkness, could anyone truly know what that felt like?

"How long do we wait?" he asked. The archaeologist startled at the intrusion into what must have been some deep, and very private thoughts.

"What?  I'm sorry?" Daniel enquired, taking off his glasses, and polishing the lenses on his tee shirt.

"How long?" the colonel asked again, averting his eyes from the peaceful expression on Jack O'Neill's face.

"Um, 24 hours," Daniel replied. "That's what Janet said." Thoughtful for a moment, he looked up at Makepeace then.  "I guess you should set your watch or something?" That remark one he'd given no thought, a reflex to show him he was in control more than he realised.

Makepeace nodded, setting his watch alarm, looking at Jackson curiously. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just, could you leave us alone?" Daniel asked him. "I just have a few things I'd like to..."

The colonel regarded Jackson for a moment. "Sure, I'll be... somewhere!" he told him.

Daniel looked down at his friend’s face, a wry smile covering his own. "Well this is... um, odd!" he said, half expecting O'Neill to respond with something sarcastic. "I guess I could say anything now, you'd have to listen right?" A tearful, almost distraught regard, crossed his face then at that thought, the sadness gripping him far more intensely than he realised.

Makepeace could hear Jackson, standing outside his head leant back against the wall, looking at his watch, and cursing himself for being able to pull the trigger. He knew he'd helped, but it still didn't sit right.

"I guess you're probably around somewhere right?" Daniel mused, a wry, half-hearted smiled crossing his face.  "If all that stuff about spirits, and souls is true.  But I found something out, and I really needed to tell you.  Just to have said it I guess?" Another wry smile. "Except you won't exactly be able to hear it, so I'll be saved from the usual cutting sarcasm.  But it's just that I wanted to say that I've learned a lot, especially over the past two, or whatever months, about myself, and the strange thing is, about trust, trusting someone." Jackson's eyes lifted from his friend now. "I never really understood what friendship meant. It’s funny, but I guess life and death probably has a way of showing it to us, and I wish you could hear this meus amicus, because I think I finally understand you... and I know what you'd say if you could, you'd say, 'shut up Daniel,' or you'd probably give me one of those Jack O'Neill long suffering looks, either way I'd shut up, right?"

Makepeace smiled to himself then, Jackson's words had a sound of truth to them.

"I just really wanted to say that I appreciate everything you've done. Losing Sha're was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through, it kind of brought back that feeling I had as a child." He moved round O'Neill then, leaning back against the wall, his hand dutifully on his friend’s shoulder. "I never realised how lonely it was, being without someone in your life, like my parents, then Sha're, and if I've been a pain in the ass some of the time, it's probably been because I felt alone. I never got how much it took for you to reach out to help, to put your self aside.  But now I think I do.  SG-1's my family now, and you're well, brother, father, I don't know how I see you exactly, but you've just been there.  I've missed having that comfort zone, so what I'm really trying to say is... I've missed you, meus amicus!"

Makepeace looked over his shoulder, he understood that, many had been the time that he'd spoken those words, not exactly the same, but the lament, the needing to say something, when everything seemed so final.

Another look at his watch, 20 minutes had passed.  "Gonna be a long one!" he commented, figuring it was safe to go inside, since Jackson had been quiet for a few minutes. "You done?" he enquired.

Jackson nodded, leaning his head back against the wall. "How long?"

"23 hours 38 minutes!" Makepeace replied, the two men sharing an ironic smile.

*********

Hathor watched from the Pel'tac as Zipacna prepared to disembark with his Jaffa guards.

They knew where the child could be found, and if she was to gain control over the knowledge of the Ancients, Hathor had to have possession.   But this, perhaps, was a secondary consideration. Why? She didn’t understand that, not fully. But there was something about this man that had made her feel, she both hated him for it, and she desired him. He would not escape her, not now.

"See that you do not fail us," she warned the Goa'uld, as the rings descended over him.

*********

Heru'ur's ships slowed from hyper drive, orbiting the planet of Chulak.

"Find the ships," Heru'ur ordered. Nefir bowed before his master.

The Goa'uld, standing in the glider bay, watched his Jaffa disappear into their craft.  A look of reticence crossed his features slowly, Hathor's presence now an eminent danger to all that he had worked for. He turned, smarting, heading away from the bays, back toward the Pel'tac.  Failing the capture of this information, he knew he had O'Neill, the colonel had promised to divulge whatever he felt would be useful. He would need to ensure he returned to Thebes before the others had a chance to change the mind of his powerful ally.

Hathor would need to be dealt with, that was far more urgent to the Goa'uld now! O'Neill did not crave absolute power... as she would.

********

Teal'c strode across the commissary, finding Carter and Coburn having breakfast.

"Morning Teal'c," Sam greeted, as the Jaffa sat at her invitation to do so.

"Good morning, Major Carter, Major Coburn," Teal'c replied. "Has there been any news of Daniel Jackson and Colonel Makepeace?"

"Nothing so far," Carter said, sipping her coffee, a heavy sigh. "Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!"

"Well until I hear otherwise, I'm gonna be an optimist," Coburn enthused, looking at the Jaffa who regarded him with that same expression of apathy that he seemed to prevail upon all but his own team. "Maybe we should do something, chess?"

"Chess?" Sam exclaimed, a smile breaking out across her face. "That's not exactly my idea of fun. No I'll probably go and run some tests on those rocks SG5 brought back from P4Y 965"

"Teal'c?" Coburn offered.

"I am unfamiliar with this word?" the Jaffa replied.

"OK, it's a board game, you have opposing pieces. I could teach you if you'd like?" Coburn suggested. "I'm not exactly up to Colonel O'Neill's standard, but you'd be able to give him a pretty good game when he comes back,"

Teal'c looked intrigued at that idea, at the positivity Coburn emanated.  "Then I would be a willing apprentice," he agreed. "Proceed!"

"We need the board, and the pieces," Coburn told him, standing. "I'll bring them!"

Carter looked at the Jaffa, surprised that he'd be interested at all.  "Teal'c, are you just placating Major Coburn?" she enquired.

The Jaffa's staunch regard fell roundly upon her. "Indeed!" he replied.

Carter smiled. "Great, well have fun!"

*********

Makepeace checked his watch. "Two hours to go!" he said, breaking the silence in the tomb.

Jackson had been reading notes he'd made in a small pocket book.  "Maybe you should try to get some sleep, I don't know how long the Sarcophagus will take to revive him once we put him in," he suggested.

Makepeace shook his head. "I caught some earlier, I'll be fine," he told the archaeologist, knowing that he fully intended to cuff O'Neill before placing him in the device. Things had gone on long enough.  If he waited, he might not get another opportunity.  Dealing with Jackson would be another matter.

"Look, Daniel," he said quickly, deciding to attempt to talk Jackson out of pursuing the child with O'Neill. "If we don't take this chance to get Jack out of here, we might not get another one."

Daniel regarded him, pushing the notepad back into the pouch on his belt. "Um, why?"

"Suppose, just for a minute, that Hathor has the child, she's unlikely to just let Jack take it back right?"

Jackson considered that, he knew Makepeace was right. But he felt he had to stick by O'Neill's decision, his own promise.

"Colonel, I know you're right, but we have to try," he insisted. "You think Jack's just going to accept it? Because I don't!"

"So we make up a story, tell him Heru'ur killed the kid, and Hathor," Makepeace offered.  "I know that's gonna crush him, if we can get him to believe it, but we can't just sit around here and hope everything goes our way, maybe it has so far, but don't you think there's gonna come a time when we don't have a choice anymore?  Where Jack might be forced to hand over whatever he knows to get the kid back?"

"Colonel we can't..." Daniel sounded horrified. "He'd... I don't know what he'd do?"

"Daniel look!" Makepeace snapped. "If he thinks the kid is dead, he'll stop looking, he'll focus on what he should be focusing on, which is finding the knowledge to destroy the Goa'uld, you said he had it in him right?"

"But..."

"Doc, we might not get another chance," Makepeace insisted. "I say we tell the Jaffa to get the Sarcophagus on the mothership, get them to help us return to Earth, make it sound like that's the only way we can save him... anything to get him, and us, back home!"

Jackson looked down at O'Neill's body. "What about the child?" he asked, the hesitation on his face becoming angst. "Are we just going to let Hathor have Jack's daughter?"

"Who says she has the kid? His Jaffa hid it right? The kid might be safe, and later on we can try and find her, but Daniel, we can't ignore the fact that we've got an opportunity here. We have to take the initiative!" the colonel insisted.

The archaeologist looked away from the colonel, shaking his head, the thought sounded almost too underhand to consider. Makepeace was right... but he'd promised.

"I don't know, I, Jack's not gonna let it drop, if he thinks Heru'ur killed his daughter, he's going to want revenge, and I don't know if that's what General Hammond had in mind," he argued.

"Focus!" the colonel replied firmly. "He'll want revenge, he'll be focused."

"That's… no, I can't do that to him colonel. You don't understand, he already lost his son," Daniel insisted. "It might destroy him, and I couldn't lie to him like that, what kind of a friend would that make me?"

"One that might have just saved his life?" Makepeace replied, becoming a little more anxious now.  "Daniel, we've got to do this, no matter how it sounds right now, it's the only way, and if we don't, and Heru'ur, or God forbid Hathor, comes back, we're stuck!"

"I can't, I just..."

"Then let me do it, it's for the best Daniel, you have to know that?"

Jackson leant back against the wall, his head lowered.  "I know you're right," he said finally. "But I just can't do that to him, and I won't!"

*******

"My queen, Heru'ur's ships approach!" the Jaffa told Hathor, as she entered the Pel'tac.

"Do we have news from Zipacna?" she enquired.

"Yes my queen, he was unable to locate the child, the Jaffa has misled us, the child is not on Chulak," the Jaffa responded.

Hathor looked incensed.  "Have him brought back! Immediately," she ordered.

*******

"My lord, Hathor's ship is leaving orbit, we have located it on the far side of the planet," Nefir told the Goa'uld system lord.

"Bring back the gliders, do not lose her!" he snapped.

"Yes my lord!"

*******

Apophis smiled at the child. “O’Neill, we are not done with you yet!” he said, enjoying the feeling of power he felt surge through him. At last, he had something that would bring Jack O’Neill to him. He knew the weakness of the Tau’ri and this he knew, was the moment when he could exploit that weakness.

“Prepare to leave!” he snapped. “Zipacna, ensure that this news reaches O’Neill, ensure that this Tau’ri slave knows we hold his child’s life in our hands!”

Zipacna bowed his head low. “Yes Apophis, I shall ensure he is aware of your power, my lord!”

*********

The Goa'uld mothership hovered above the pyramid, the sarcophagus safely aboard.

"Jack will thank you for this Kalim, once he is free from Hathor's power, he will return to command your forces once more," Daniel told the Jaffa, little commitment in his voice. He disagreed with Makepeace, but he had no choice. If they did remain on Thebes, they risked the return of Hathor, or Heru’ur. Still he loathed Makepeace for making him choose to betray his friend.

That he'd finally succumbed to Makepeace's assertions, however, did not automatically mean he could lie to Jack O'Neill, look him in the face and tell him they believed that his child had been killed.

"Colonel, look, we have to have another way," he snapped once he and Makepeace were alone. Jack was safely inside the sarcophagus.

"What? Got a suggestion, I'd be willing to go along with it," Makepeace intoned.

Jackson thought hard.  "I'm not, anything but dead?" he implored, his conscience getting the better of him.

"Okay, how about, Hathor got the kid and escaped, you know as well as I do he'd just want to turn this thing around and go after her," the colonel insisted.

Jackson's hand swept across his face, into his hair. "Wait!" he exclaimed, his eyes springing open, cat like. "What if she doesn't have the child, and Iceni's safe, couldn't we just go get her?"

"You think the Jaffa's gonna tell you where the kid is? We might just lead Hathor right to it. Who says she's not waiting out there? Daniel, we don't have time for this, the colonel has to believe he's lost her, or there's not a chance in hell of him staying on Earth," Makepeace insisted.

Daniel looked torn. "I just don't think that telling him he's lost another child is the right thing to do colonel, and I won't do it!"

"Dr. Jackson, you may not be in the military, but I'm telling you this right now, we follow orders for a reason. We might not always agree with them, or even like them, hell, half the time we don't want to carry them out... but they make sense. Now, you tell O'Neill that the kid’s out there, alive, he'll risk everything to find it... and if Hathor, or Heru'ur get their hands on him again, I don't think we'll ever get him back, and we'd probably just handed them the means with which to sweep this galaxy without equals!"

Makepeace was angry, Jackson's high moral code not something that he needed to deal with.  It didn't sit easy with him either, but he didn't think they had a choice.

He turned and glanced back at Jackson, shaking his head. “If there was any other way,” he said.

Jackson stared at him. “He’ll see right through me!” he intoned. “And then what?”

“I don’t know Dr. Jackson, and it’s not my call. We get him back, that’ll be up to Hammond!”

The colonel turned, and left Jackson alone with his friend. 

The Jaffa set a course for Earth, Makepeace stood with him at the Pel'tac.

"How long is this gonna take?" he enquired.

"Approximately sixteen of your Earth hours. My lord will survive in the Sarcophagus until then, we will await his return in your orbit," Kalim told him.

"No! He wants you to take this ship back to Ishkarata, and find his child... take her back with you, and make sure she's safe, have you got that?" Makepeace ordered.

The Jaffa bowed his head. "The child is safe on Seng'olia, my lord bade me to find a place where the Goa'uld would not dare to tread, she has his knowledge, his wisdom. My wife has undertaken this task," he imparted.

Makepeace smiled, "Son of a gun, well done, I'll tell Dr. Jackson, I know that'll make him a whole hell of a lot happier!"

*********

Jack O'Neill woke slowly; Hammond, Carter and Teal'c were standing over him, the familiar setting of the infirmary as his eyes began to focus.

"How the hell?" His voice was a little hoarse.

"Welcome back Colonel O'Neill," Hammond greeted.

An attempt to raise his hands was prevented by restraints. Jack looked confused. "What the hell's going on?" he asked.

"You got a little forceful earlier Colonel, we had to restrain you," Janet told him.

"Daniel?" Jack called out. "Daniel!" More emphatic.

Jackson moved from the back of the room. "I'm here Jack, you're fine.  I guess you should have warned us you'd only just used the Sarcophagus, you got a little, well you know!" he explained.

"I did? I don't remember anything about that?" he responded, looking around him as if he couldn’t quite believe where he was.

"Well apparently, using it in quick succession, you remember what happened to me?" Daniel told him. "And, I know you won't remember this either, but Iceni is safe, she's with the Seng'olians, Kalim’s wife has apparently taken her there. They’ll look after her Jack, you know that, you just need to take some time to heal now."

Janet began to usher everyone from the room. "Colonel we'll debrief tomorrow, Dr. Fraiser assures me that you should have made a complete recovery with at least 24 hours rest," Hammond said.

"Um, I'm staying," Daniel told Fraiser.

"Dr. Jackson I appreciate your concern but..."

"No! Let him stay," Jack demanded. "There's a couple of things I need to ask!"

His eyes narrowed, looking at the archaeologist.

Daniel lowered his own eyes, he knew what was coming, but he wasn't about to walk away from it.

"So, that's keeping your word?" Jack said, pulling at the restraints. "And undo these will ya, I'm not going any where!"

"Jack I'm sorry, but once we found out that Iceni was safe, Makepeace demanded that I let him bring you back here," Daniel explained, immediately undoing the restraints.

"So," the colonel began. "Do you think you owe me something?"

"What?"

"An apology?"

"Why?"

"Daniel, did you know he was gonna shoot me right then?" Jack asked.

Jackson looked surprised. "What?"

"You knew right, and you just stood there. And what was with all that, Jack you're making this harder stuff?" O'Neill continued, deliberately laying on the guilt trip as thick as he could.

"I had no idea he was going to shoot you then... why do you care?" Daniel asked. "I mean you knew he was going to shoot you, did it make a difference when?"

Jack raised his eyebrows, a heavy sigh. "I hadn't finished yet!"

"Jack, are you okay?" Jackson enquired, completely confused by this interrogation.

"I'm fine Daniel, and when did you decide to break your promise exactly?"

Daniel looked away from him. “Makepeace didn’t exactly give me a choice Jack!” he imparted.

“Yeah right!” Jack snarled. “I trusted you!”

"Jack, I..."

"Feel really bad? Can't sleep, eat or drink?" Jack intoned, the scowl on his face making Jackson feel worse.

"Well, something like that, I haven't had any sleep since Makepeace shot you!" Jackson confessed.

"Sweet, now I feel better," O'Neill replied, folding his arms across his chest.

"You do?"

"Yeah, cause I'm thinking, you owe me big time," Jack told him, his eyes suddenly smiling in that wicked, almost twisted manner he had. "And Daniel, that favour’s coming!" O'Neill told him. "Believe me!"

Jackson looked at the colonel, who closed his own eyes, a smile crossing his lips.

"Oh boy!" he sighed.

The End!!!!!!   Or is it?

Beyond concludes.....Sedition begins shortly.

© Jaclyn 2001

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