After Jacob, the Tok'ra and the rest of SG-1 had made it back to the SGC, it hadn't taken Dr. Fraiser long to sort out the wounded. All four Tok'ra were now in a stable condition receiving treatment for their injuries.
In the briefing room, General Hammond was patiently listening to the remainder of SG-1 and Jacob as they explained the circumstances of losing Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Telan and Kenar and also of their joint decision of leaving them behind.
General Hammond didn't take long to decide to mount a rescue mission for Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter and the remaining two Tok'ra.
"SG-9 will go. Major McDonald will lead this mission. Is that understood SG-1?" He looked pointedly at Teal'c and Jonas. He didn't want them going off on a tangent. "You have a go. Be ready in one hour. Dismissed."
As Jonas and Teal'c left the room, General Hammond slowly got up to leave, but Jacob called him back.
"George, I don't hold much hope for them. The surviving Tok'ra that we rescued said that Tolgarth is ruthless. I think you should change all the codes. I need to send word to our Tok'ra base to move. Apparently Tolgarth has a new torture device that supersedes anything that the Goa'uld have used before."
General Hammond turned a grim face towards Jacob. "Don't you think I should be sending more of my people to get them out?"
"I'm not sure George, but I just thought you should know that maybe we will be too late."
"Jacob, this is your daughter we are talking about. Don't you hold any hope at all?"
Jacob sat there, looked down at the table and sighed. "I have a little. I always have hope, but from what my fellow Tok'ra have told me," he looked up at Hammond, "I just don't know anymore."
General Hammond nodded to Jacob, got up from the table and quickly walked out of the room.
As General Hammond sat down at the desk in his office, he knew that he had to make a tough decision. He sat there for a while just staring into space, thinking. Fifty minutes later he had come to a decision. He quickly walked through to the gate room. When he arrived there, SG-9, Teal'c, Jonas and Jacob were standing ready to go. The seventh chevron had just locked on the Stargate and they were waiting for General Hammond to give the order to go ahead. Hammond stopped at the door, took a deep breath and then walked into the gate room.
"Stand down SG-9, SG-1, the mission is aborted." He announced.
Jacob froze. He wasn't surprised at the General's decision. To a certain degree he agreed with the decision, however much it hurt him to know that he wouldn't have the help to get Sam out of there. Both Teal'c and Jonas started to protest, but stopped in mid-sentence as General Hammond held up his hand to silence them. "Until we have further Intel, this mission is not to proceed. Teal'c, Jonas, it's not likely that we can risk further lives in retrieving them. From what I have heard the three of you will not be able to rescue them in time. In fact it most probably is too late already.
Then Jacob announced that he would go alone.
"I am still going George. Even if it is just to find out what has happened to them."
Jacob quickly turned away from the others and walked up to the Stargate. Just as he stepped through the event horizon, he heard the heavy clump of booted feet running up behind him. Both Teal'c and Jonas wasted no time in coming to a joint decision. They had only come back to Earth, because they thought they would return to Tolgarth's planet. As far as they were concerned they had no choice. They would not leave Jack and Sam behind.
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~The sky was clear blue. There was a slight warm breeze that made the skirt of her pale blue dress billow out and swirl around her legs. Sam wasn't sure where she was, but she was climbing up a small rocky pathway. Her brown open sandals were making slight footprints in the dry dusty ground. At one place she had to reach out with her hands so she could keep her balance. Sam had never felt so good. She was warm. The sun felt good on her skin and the breeze was blowing through her hair. Even though she was walking uphill she hadn't even broken out in a sweat. As she reached the top of the rise in front of her, she looked down onto a meadow. It was beautiful, as far as she could see there were flowers of all colours, which were swaying in the breeze. Sam quickly began to climb down to the meadow. She couldn't wait to walk in amongst the flowers, to breathe in the fragrance that had tantalised her as it had wafted up to her on the brow of the hill. As Sam walked through the flowers, she bent down to drink in the fragrance. Very carefully she began to pick some of the flowers. Soon her arms were full of long, full- headed blooms. She was so engrossed in what she was doing at first that she didn't see the figure in the distance walking purposefully towards her. When she did notice, a feeling of hope washed through her and she felt no fear. She stood still, as this blue clad figure came closer to where she waited. ~
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Sam felt stiff and sore. `Where is that noise coming from?' There was a rumble and a crackling sound. She wasn't sure whether she should open her eyes. She was lying face down on something warm, it felt like a body and much to her relief she could hear a heartbeat. Sam wriggled around a bit and opened her eyes, it was dark and as she started to get up, she banged her head on something above her. It felt like she and this other person were in a long box. There wasn't much room to move at all. Then the rumbling sound came again and blue light crackled around them. She quickly looked down to see who was in there with her. Though she wasn't surprised, she was still relieved to see it was Colonel O'Neill.
"Colonel. Colonel. Wake up." Sam started tapping him on the side of the face. She didn't like what was going on inside the box they were in, as the blue light was growing in its intensity and the rumbling noise was increasing. She wasn't sure, but she thought they were inside a sarcophagus. "Please Sir. You've got to wake up, come on." By now she had started to slap him harder. O'Neill woke up with a start, tried to sit up and slammed Carter into the top of the sarcophagus. All round it was a very painful awakening.
"Ouch!… Quick, we've got to get out of here. I don't think it is safe."
O'Neill stared at Carter in the eerily blue light. "You're alive, I thought you were dead, in fact, I thought we were both dead."
"With respect Sir. If we don't get out of here soon, I think we will be again."
O'Neill wasted no time. He reached up past Carter and grabbed hold of the edges of the opening of the sarcophagus. With his fingers he started to slide the doors apart. By this time the sarcophagus had started to shake and was making noises that they had never heard come from a sarcophagus before. The doors made a grinding noise as O'Neill pried them apart. Soon he had made a big enough opening for them to climb out. O'Neill quickly crouched at one end of the sarcophagus and gave Carter his hand to lean on as she climbed out. After climbing down, Carter leant on the side of the sarcophagus, as she was still feeling weak, while O'Neill quickly jumped down beside her. As they both left the side of the sarcophagus, blue light shot out from it and flowed down over both of them and they collapsed onto the ground.
They didn't lose consciousness and O'Neill quickly grabbed hold of Carter's hand and hauled her to her feet. The rumbling noise was increasing as they fled from the room. Just as they turned the corner a large explosion blew out the room they had just left. The wall surrounding them in the tunnel started to collapse. Not sure where to go, O'Neill still holding Carter's hand, raced down the tunnel, looking for an exit.
They noticed they were running on hard packed earth and began to hope that maybe they would be able to escape. O'Neill didn't want to make the same mistake again and run into a group of Jaffa. They slowed their pace to a fast walk. Slowly the ground began to rise and Carter and O'Neill could see a faint light at the end of the tunnel. They were unaware that they were following the same path that Jacob had taken only a few days before. As soon as they were outside, they moved into the trees to find shelter and to work out what had been happening. O'Neill quickly looked at Carter, taking in the blood on her T-shirt and her white tired face. The bruises had gone from her face and her eye wasn't swollen closed anymore from the beating she had received. Carter was watching him, doing the same thing as he was, checking that he was OK. She tentively reached forward with both her hands and lifted his T-shirt away from his stomach. It was clear, no marks and cuts.
"Oh, the good ol' sarcophagus," O'Neill said with a small grin, "are you all right Sam?"
Sam nodded. "I'm still a bit sore, but I'm alive." She reached up and touched his face gently and with a minute smile said. "Are you all right, Sir?"
He grinned back at her and nodded. "Hey, what do you reckon? Do you think we have annoyed old snakehead? We blew up his sarcophagus!"
Carter was still smiling at O'Neill, but when he said that, she laughed. O'Neill still had a burning anger inside him, but he was pleased to hear Carter laughing again. He had thought he'd never hear that laugh again. The last sound he had heard from her was screaming, as they died in each other arms. Shaking his head as though to dispel those images from his mind, he stood up.
"Come on Carter. We need to get to the rendezvous point."
Walking side by side, they walked quickly and warily towards the specified place. They were on the lookout for any Jaffa that may be lurking in amongst the trees. It took them nearly two hours to reach their destination. They couldn't believe their eyes when they got there. Seated on the ground were Jacob and Jonas, they were discussing plans on how to enter the Castle. Teal'c stood on the other side of them looking into the forest for any enemies.
"Watcha doing?" O'Neill announced as they stepped into the small clearing.
Immediately, Jacob and Jonas leapt to their feet and rushed over to O'Neill and Carter.
"Sam, are you all right?" Asked a very worried father.
"Yes, I'm fine Dad." Sam reached up and wrapped her arms around her father and squeezed tight. After all that she had gone through, part of her wanted to cry. She felt safe as her Dad held her in his firm grasp. O'Neill hovered nearby. `Jack looks a wreck,' thought Jacob.
"Hey, Jacob, Teal'c." Nodding to Jonas. "Jonas. We need to get out of here. We aren't Tolgarth's favourite people at the moment. We blew up his sarcophagus." With this final comment, a smug look crossed over O'Neill's face.
"Where are Telan and Kenar?"
O'Neill slowly shook his head at Jacob. Jacob acknowledged him with a nod.
"Actually," said Jacob, "we are in a bit of trouble. General Hammond has locked out all of our codes. We will have to go somewhere else first."
O'Neill nodded in approval at this. As it turned out, they needn't have worried, as both Carter and O'Neill had not revealed anything to Tolgarth. Jacob plus SG-1 moved quickly and silently through the forest, making good time. Jonas couldn't get over the fact that though Jack and Sam's clothes were saturated in dried blood, they seemed to be all right. He wondered what they had gone through. From what he had heard from the injured Tok'ra, Jack and Sam would have suffered terribly.
Without warning, they were surprised by an attack. Jacob was hit in the arm by a staff weapon blast, knocking him to the ground. Sam quickly bent down and helped her father up. With Teal'c, Jonas and O'Neill covering them with weapon fire, they quickly raced into the covering of the trees. Soon after, the others followed them. They had seemed to manage to lose the pursuing Jaffa. It wasn't long before they arrived at the Stargate. O'Neill was very suspicious that the Stargate was not guarded, but they managed to dial out to a safe planet unmolested. They safely moved through the Stargate to the other side.
Carter immediately dialled up Earth's address, waited until the seventh chevron locked, then sent through their code. After this they sat down and waited. It wasn't long before the gate started up again and the whoosh of the Stargate settled into the event horizon. A MALP trundled through the gate. Jonas walked up to it and waved into the camera.
By this time, O'Neill had become very quiet. He was sitting by himself brooding. It was the only word that came to her mind as Sam watched him. She knew what he had gone through, what they had gone through and she could see that he was beginning to stew about it. She had been waiting for him to bawl her out for disobeying orders, but this new O'Neill, the silent quiet one, was beginning to worry her. She had to admit that she was feeling weird too. She hadn't even given herself time to come to terms with the torture and death she had received at the hands of Tolgarth. So she put her worry to the back of her mind and stood up to dial Earth's address so they could go home.
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To be continued – Part 4 – Blue Light
Yep, there is more. Please I still need lots of feedback. arrietty39@hotmail.com
Story Notes: Author's Note: This is the part 3; you need to read part one and part two. Tolgarth – The beginning and Tolgarth – Despair to understand what is going on. OK, this is just to confuse you, but and italics means thinking and ~ and italics means dreaming. Of course a great ginormous thank you goes to my beta readers DJ and Vicky. J And for the patiently waiting Arnise.
FEEDBACK: Hey everyone who has given me feedback so far, thank you very much, it is weird the more feedback I receive the faster my fingers type.
FEEDBACK: Hey everyone who has given me feedback so far, thank you very much, it is weird the more feedback I receive the faster my fingers type.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]