Chapter 1: The Beginning
As Captain Samantha Carter was getting ready for the next debriefing, she was starting to feel very uncomfortable about her duties within the SGC. She never had these feelings on any mission she went on while being a part of Stargate Command. Even during her Air Force career, she had met challenges that were at time very stressful, but she never cowered away from any of them.
She walked down the corridors in deep thought over these feelings. At every passing step, she became more and more afraid. She did not want to cower away, but at the same time she could not shake this sense of dread in her. Due to her father, now a Tok'ra, she surely did not want to leave Stargate Command due to how she felt. Her father meant everything to her.
When she arrived in the conference room, she had a seat in her usual chair. Suddenly she was hit with another foreboding feeling. It was like she was hit in the stomach, and she showed that to all in the room.
Colonel Jack O'Neill asked, “Carter, you okay?”
Captain Carter answered with a nauseated look on her face, “No sir I am not.”
General Hammond asked, “If you need to go to the infirmary, then you can be excused.”
“I do not think it is that sir. Just recently, I had this feeling that something bad will happen to me. I just got another hit from it like I have never felt before. I have to tell you, it is scaring the hell out of me.”
Teal'c stated, “You have been doing a great deal Captain Carter. It might be that you need some down time.”
She said nervously, “I know this might sound crazy, but I do not think that will help. I think someone is after me.”
Colonel Jack O’Neill said calmly, “Sam, no one is after you.”
General Hammond commanded, “I want to you go to the infirmary just in case what is happening is not due to some illness or the like. This mission is not top priority - You are! Have Dr. Frasier check you out. That's an order!”
“Yes sir.” Sam got up, and walked to the infirmary.
As she was walking to the infirmary, she was having more intense emotional feelings of dread. She realized she was not acting like herself at all. Something was attacking her personally.
After a complete physical, Dr. Frasier said, “Sam, you are fit as you could ever be. Now tell me what you are feeling right now.”
“Just before the briefing, I was having these feeling of dark foreboding over me. Like I told everyone, I feel that something horrible is going to happen to me. I still feel this way.”
“Have you been stressed out or anything?”
“No I have not. Before I got ready for this briefing, I was feeling great. I was excited about going on this mission. Like a bolt of lightning, I was hit by what I am feeling right now.”
“I do not know what it could be Sam, other than some needed rest. From reading your mission files, you have been very busy. It could be that you need to simply step out of the office.”
Colonel O'Neill came in. “Hammond is giving us all a few days off. If you still feel as you do Carter, then we can go from there.”
Captain Carter replied as an officer rather than herself, “I do have some things to do here.”
O'Neill said sternly, “You are not going to stay here Sam. That is an order! Sometimes I have to get the hell away from this place.”
“Yes sir.”
She jumped off the table, and walked to her room to get into her civilian attire.
After Sam had left, Jack asked Dr Frasier, “How is she?”
“She is fine, but there is something that is really bothering her. I do not think some R&R will do the trick.”
He protested, “You said she was fit, and ready to go!”
Even though he was over her in rank, they became good frineds. She addressed him as such. Dr. Janet Frasier replied with a sharp tone, “Jack, you know Sam better than that! She is not the type to worry over how she feels. She has faced death countless times through the Stargate and her Air Force career. She has no sign of psychosis. What she is facing is real.”
He asked calmly, “How can Sam be effected, and not the rest of us?”
“Good question. For some reason, I am starting to believe Sam might be in real trouble.”
Colonel O'Neill declared with a little frustration, “I do not buy that future telling junk.”
Dr. Frasier said understandingly, “I do not either, but you and I both have experienced some very damn odd stuff since we have been a part of the SGC. All that I ask is that you all keep your eyes open.”
Jack gave Janet Frasier that look of are you serious.
Janet asked sarcastically, “How would you feel if something happened to Sam. I know how you two feel for each other.”
He replied with a sad look, “I would not feel good at all. Before I act on this, I need to know what the hell is going on. Other than that, I cannot do one thing to keep Sam from going on any mission. That is why I asked General Hammond for my team to have a few days off base. If this R&R does not help her, I am afraid we are going to lose her.”
She asked worriedly, “You do not think someone is out to kill her?”
He answered with a little fear in his voice, “If someone or something is giving her this forewarning, I do not think it is that simple as killing her. If this is real as you say, then I think it is something a lot more profound.”
“What do you think it could be?”
“I have no clue. That is why I want to know more on what is going on with her.”
“I cannot hold her for medical reasons. It appears that this is all up to her.”
“If she is stressed out, then doing things for fun might do the trick.”
Janet asked worriedly, “But you do not think so?”
Jack answered with obvious uncertainly, “I just do not know.”
**********
After a few hours of being away from the base, the four of them were enjoying themselves at Jack's house. Everyone was relaxed and calm, except for Sam. She was far too tense.
Daniel asked her, “How do you feel?”
“About the same.”
Teal'c asked, “Do you still feel the same as you did on base?”
“Not like I did when I sat down in the briefing room.”
“What are you feeling?” asked Daniel.
“I feel like someone wants me. Someone that has the ability to kill anyone that gets in the way.”
Jack said, “No one is threatening our lives at the moment.”
Sam smiled for the first time since they left the SGC. “I know. Believe me sir. I am not worrying over it. Just the same, I cannot shake these feelings.”
Teal'c said with certainty, “Captain Carter, We will not allow anyone to harm you.”
“I know you all will defend me, but I believe it will not do any good.”
Jack protested sternly, “Stop that Carter! There is no reason to fear the worst.”
Sam replied with a little fear in her voice, “Trust me sir, I am not. What I am feeling is more than just a journey to the unknown. This is real as I am sitting here with all of you right now.”
Jack got an uneasy feeling himself. Somehow he knew that he would not see her again, once she got on the other side of the Stargate. He would love to give the order to keep her on Earth, but he could not without a military reason. Going by Sam's feelings or his, he knew that would not keep her from her duties.
Jack also knew that Janet was right. They all faced dangers. “How can this be any different?”
Sam said with certainty, “However I feel, I will not stop going through the Stargate. Whatever is the problem, I want to face it.”
Jack tried to smile, “You will Carter, and do not fear anymore. That is an order.”
Sam tried to smile herself, “Yes sir.” She somehow felt that she would not see Jack anymore, once she stepped through the Stargate.
After a few more hours, what scared her the most was that she was feeling a lot better. It was like all those negative feelings did not exist. She was starting to enjoy her time off. She was laughing and having fun. Jack and the rest were starting to be concerned.
They were all happy that she was not feeling bad. They all knew that this was not natural for her to be in fear one moment, and for everything to be alright the next. What they did for her was enjoyed their time together outside the SGC. They did not want to upset her anymore than they had to.
She was feeling better each day that she was away from the base. Being away from military duties, she was able to think more of her love for Jack. She knew that she could not fulfill that love due to regulations, but at least she could think romantic thoughts about them both. Every night as she slept, Jack was there with her in her mind. Jack had his arms around her gently, but securely. Her foreboding feelings did not touch her - she was safe in his arms.
Every time she looked at him while away from the base, she wanted to hold him with the love she had for him. She could see them together privately kissing and caressing each other. She knew that Jack had the same love for her. She saw it in his eyes countless times at the SGC and off world.
When they finally got back to the SGC, she was back to normal. General Hammond was not all that relaxed when Sam was feeling as though nothing had happened, but he said to her, “Good to see you are feeling better.”
She smiled, “Thank you sir.”
Janet asked, “How do you feel?”
She answered uneasily, “Like I should. That is what is concerning me.”
Daniel said, “If you get those feelings again, please tell us.”
“I will. Hopefully it was stress, and that will be the end of it.”
Jack said, “Let's hope so. We will be going through the Stargate in 7 hours. We will have the debriefing in 6.”
“Yes sir, looking forward to it.”
Jack smiled at her and walked away.
When alone General Hammond said to her, “Your father sent a message to us here while you four were gone.”
Sam smiled warmly, “Good. We have plans to do something together. That is why I did not want to take R&R on what I was facing.”
“Sorry Sam, but your father cannot make it. The Tok'ra had something going on. He did not elaborate what they were doing.”
Sam asked uneasily, “Is it too late to reply back?”
The General answered understandingly, “I am afraid so Captain.”
Sam smiled, “Thank you for telling me sir.”
General Hammond replied with a smile of his own, “Anytime. Happy you are feeling better.”
The both of them went their own way.
Several hours passed. Sam was in her room, contemplating over why she felt as she did the past several days. She knew it was not simple stress. Even though she enjoyed the time with her friends off base, she knew these feelings were not going to end.
There was a knock on her door.
The voice said, “Captain Carter!”
When Sam opened the door she replied, “What can I do for you Lieutenant Jones?”
“General Hammond wants you at the briefing room right now!”
Sam darted off. When she saw the rest of her team, she said “I take it that Daniel found something interesting, again.”
General Hammond replied, “Actually it was one of the computer operatives.”
General Hammond waited till Captain Carter had a seat before continuing. “We found an interesting Stargate address in the computer.”
“From your enthusiasm, I take it this address was not from Colonel O'Neill's entering all the Stargates addresses when he had all the knowledge of the Ancients a while back?”
“That is correct. By the date of entry, it appeared about an hour ago. We have sent a M.A.L.P. and other surveillance equipment to that location, and we have not found anything or anyone. The planet has the same atmosphere as Earth.”
“I take it we still do not know who sent us this address?”
Teal'c answered, “No. That is why I believe we should investigate it.”
On the star maps, General Hammond showed her where SG1 will be going.
Sam replied with excitement, “That is the furthermost place we have ever traveled. We do not know anyone that could be in that sector. Sir, it could be a trap.”
Colonel O'Neill replied calmly, “Yes it could Captain, but all of us think it could be a cry for help. We have been in worse situations then this. If it is hostiles, then we four can deal with it.”
General Hammond replied, “In all of our reports, we have not seen any type of activities of any kind. There has not been any sign of intelligent life near the area. If it someone that needs our help, then we should at least check it out.”
Captain Carter asked very uneasily, “If someone wanted our attention, then why hide?”
Teal'c answered, “There has been several people that have contacted the Jaffa in the same manner. From what I have been told, every Jaffa that went to these places came back alive and well.”
General Hammond said, “As far as we know the person or persons that sent us this Stargate address could be hiding out of fear of the Goa'uld or some other threat.”
Sam was still troubled. Something was bothering her about this mission briefing. It was not what they were saying, but how they were saying it. She could not put her finger on it, but for some reason she was listening to people she had never met in her life.
Jack said calmly, “If you still feel this way after we have stepped on the other side, I will be the first to scrub the mission, and turn back home.”
Sam only nodded, but it did not help her feel any better.
After Captain Carter got suited up, and walked in the Gate Room, Colonel O'Neill asked her with a smile, “Ready to go?”
Captain Carter replied unsteadily, “Yes sir.”
The Chevrons were dialed, and the wormhole was established. Captain Samantha Carter had gone through the Stargate countless times, but for the first time in her life, she wished that she had never known about the Stargate program.
After a short time on being on the other side, Captain Carter all of a sudden felt a lot better.
The place had a big clearing around the Stargate, but the rest of the area was covered with trees. After walking, they saw different paths throughout the area. They were hoping to find a path that looked like it has been traveled through recently. If anyone else were on this planet, they had covered their tracks very well.
Teal'c asked, “How do you feel Captain Carter?”
“To my bewilderment, my negative feelings have gone. That alone scares me even more.”
Daniel Jackson replied, “It does me too. Jack was just like you, fretting over this mission. It was not long till he became his normal self.”
SG1 continued to explore the area, and they found nothing. After a time, Jack ordered everyone back to the SGC. When they were getting close to the Stargate, Jack was about to order Daniel to dial for home.
All of a sudden the Stargate was dialing to their location. Immediately Sam got that same foreboding feeling she had to begin with. She blurted out with great fear and dread, “Oh my God!”
Jack understood what she was feeling, and ordered her to get into position just in case of hostilities.
It was very odd that they were able to dial so quickly. Before SG1 knew it, laser bolts were starting to fly out of the wormhole and directly at them as if the ones shooting knew where they were standing.
As quickly as the shots were fired, beings came out from the wormhole. None of them were human. One of them was able to grab Captain Carter very quickly. Jack immediately shot at the one that grabbed her.
Another assailant was about to inject her with something, but not before he allowed Sam to witness Colonel O'Neill being shot directly in the chest.
After she saw this, she collapsed from the hypo spray injection. Once they got Captain Carter, they left as quickly as they came.
While Teal'c was attending to Jack, Daniel quickly dialed home. The wound that Jack received was not fatal. It was meant to look that way, so Sam would think that he had been killed.
Even though Colonel O'Neill's injury was not fatal, Dr. Janet Frasier rushed him to the infirmary for immediate surgery. It was Teal'c that told the confused General Hammond what happened.
Several hours after the surgery, Teal'c, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and General George Hammond were at Jack side. As Jack laid there in the bed he said, “I do not know how, but the feelings Carter and I had were right. We should not have gone, and Carter is God knows where. It was all a ruse to get her.”
General Hammond replied, “No one, not even I could have known this would have happened.”
Seeing that Jack was not convinced, General Hammond ordered everyone out of the room. When everyone left, General Hammond did something out of eyesight of Colonel O'Neill.
After he was done, General Hammond came to Jack's side once more, and said, “I just turned off the security cameras. What I am going to say to you I want no one else to hear or see.”
“Jack I know your feelings for Sam. I knew it when I saw you talking to her in that cell when she had Jolinar in her. That is why I will allow all the SGC teams to search for her very extensively, but if no one can find her, I want you to accept that.”
Jack did not argue this time. He simply said straight out, “Yes sir, and thank you.”
“When I first met you all at Stargate Command, and the first time in 1969, all of you became very special to me. I'll be damned if anything does happen to her, and would kill the person or persons responsible for this. Trust me Jack, if I knew the outcome as I do now, I would not have sent any of you. It seems someone used our emotions to get SG1 to go off world, so they could get her.”
When Jack fully recovered from his injuries, Jack met up with Teal'c and Daniel in the corridors near the elevator.
Jack said to them, “Hammond told me that the President wants SG1 to step down for now.”
Daniel replied, “We know. How are you feeling?”
“I want her back is how I am feeling. I feel that I am responsible.”
“That is not true Jack, and you know it.”
Jack got angry, “I am responsible!! I am responsible for you, Teal'c, and everything under my command!”
Daniel replied, calmly, “I know that Jack. We all know it, but you are not responsible for her getting captured.”
Jack waved his card through the slot to activate the elevator. While waiting, he said calmly, “I know.”
As the three of them got inside the elevator, Daniel said, “It will not help Sam by having us fall apart. We will find her. We will find her as we have the others.”
Jack looked at Daniel with fear and uncertainty, “I hope so. Almighty God, I hope so.”
**********
When Sam finally woke up she found herself in a very dark, dismal place. Her feelings of foreboding intensified greatly. She thought she would go out of her mind. It was the images of seeing Jack getting shot over and over in her mind that was upsetting her dearly. She tried not to believe he was dead, but she could not.
As the image kept on running uncontrollably in her mind, she kept seeing her beloved Jack die each and every time. Tears kept running down her face each time she saw Jack die. The fear of being alone in a place that she did not know where, made her feel a lot worse.
She was starting to believe she lost her true love and her father. Most of her life not having a mother was bad enough, but to have to lose her father also, and knowing what her father might be going through in losing her, it was unbearable.
All she knew, she was alone on some other world with no hope of having her team rescue her. If she did not know where she was, how could they. She also knew that if someone went to all this trouble to capture her, then something horrible was waiting. Her head was spinning in all the despair that surrounded her - she felt hopelessly lost in a world that she knew nothing about.
One day a few non-humanoids came for her. They grabbed her like an inanimate object. There were yelling things to her, but she could not understand the language. When she finally saw the light, Sam had to cover her eyes from being in that dark sell forever so long.
She was pushed forward, almost falling on her face from not being able to see her surroundings.
One of the guards yanked her hard to her feet. Once Sam was standing, she was pushed again. She realized they were tormenting her due to her temporary blindness.
When she arrived to the location she was meant to be, a sinister female voice said to her in a very odd English dialect, but Sam understood it as, “Your eyes will adjust in time.”
Sam began, “I am a Captain in the...,” but was rudely interrupted by being slapped hard on the face. She fell to the floor.
The same voice yelled out, “NEVER SPEAK UNTIL YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO!!”
Moments later Sam's eyes finally adjusted. When she saw the one that slapped her, she crawled a foot or two backwards in complete terror as she just looked at this creature. What she saw was a very large worm like being.
“Where in the hell am I?”
The large worm creature laughed.
“I see you never seen or heard of the Hutts?”
Sam was far too horrified to say anything.
The Hut knew she was terrified, but replied, “You can speak. You did it before.”
Sam mutter, “No...I....have....not.”
“For a captain you are not very articulate. Well?”
“Where am I?”
“You are talking much better now. I guess I hit you too hard. I do not know my own strength at times. Where you are my pet, is in my domain. Have any more questions, my dear?”
“Why am I here?”
The Hutt laughed. “He wants you.”
“Who wants me?”
“You will meet him in due time.”
The Hutt said something in another language that Sam did not understand. The guards grabbed her like rag doll, and literally dragged her back to her cell. Sam was far to horrified to resist, or to stand up.
Shortly after, she was given something to eat and drink. Despite the bad smell and taste, she was far too hungry to care.
She waited ever so long in her cell once more before being dragged out from it. This time she was sent to the person that was responsible for kidnapping her in the first place. She did not speak. She still felt the pain on the left side of her face from being slapped by that Hutt.
When she was at her destination, she felt something ever so formidable. Sam felt she was touched by the kiss of death in her own soul. The place to her was very dark, but the guards were able to walk around with no problem, from the rustling she heard. It was like Sam had a shroud over her eyes that kept her from seeing.
She could feel a vexatious presence that she never felt in her entire life that made her so frightened that she could barely think at all. The more she stood there, the more her fear grew.
She had tears running down her face. She could not see him, but she knew he was examining her like a prize won. The only time he spoke he said, “Send her to the slave mines at the Cyax star system.''
One of the guards hit Sam with a hypo spray, and she was out cold.
