Snakes and snakeheads

By Biltong

"You can still stop this," I whispered to her, watching as the snake slowly slithered towards where I was lying helplessly in the dirt, bound hand and foot.

"Come on Carter…Come on Sam. Please."

I craned my neck, staring at an exquisite creature dressed in rich silk, her longish hair swept up into an elaborate hair do. My 2IC couldn’t look less like a soldier if she tried.

But then again, neither could I. I had a silk and leather getup, one that I recalled being out of most nights whilst I… oh God.

She had been a Gou’ald.

"Sam, please."

My voice had absolutely no impact.

I coughed out a mouthful of dust, watching as one of the men flanking her knelt and opened a wicker basket, his smile feral.

"Sam…SAM, she drugged us," I said desperately. She drugged us, and now she intends you kill me, as a test of your loyalty."

"I am loyal to our Queen Hekt, yes." She looked down her nose at me, her expression hard. "I would not have run."

I wriggled in the dirt, frantically trying to get this vision dressed on gauzy light yellow to meet my eyes. Eventually I succeeded.

"Sam, you are from earth, from the SGC. Please remember."

She stared at me with icy blue eyes, with not a flicker of recognition.

"You left her," she said. "You refused our Queen’s company, she who has given you everything. You rejected her."

Her eyes glittered in anger, so unlike the Carter I knew that I gasped softly.

"Carter, please." I watched her closely, desperately searching for a flicker of emotion, some indication that the drug, whatever it was, was wearing off, as it had done with me.

"You rejected her," she continued dispassionately. "And as a consequence of your actions, our Queen is sad. She now demands your death."

"She doesn’t want me reporting back to the SGC, Sam."

Her voice was emotionless.

"Your loyalty had been found wanting, and now you must die."

"Dammit Sam."

I hissed in fear as she picked up the basket, emptying a large gray snake onto the ground next to my bound feet.

A very large, very angry gray snake.

Oh Crap, I really hate snakes.

I tore my eyes away from the hissing creature, looking up at her imploringly, taking in the wide blue eyes, now accented with kohl, and once more begged for my life.

"Sam, please stop this."

"I cannot." All of a sudden her voice was slurred, like she had been drinking, and I gasped in relief. The drug was finally wearing off.

"You can."

This had happened to me as well. I had strayed too far from the caves in my search for game, allowing the effects of the drug to weaken, making me remember who I was, for the first time in a long time.

We were SG1. Carter, me, Danny and Teal’c, and now I was finally free, I didn’t want to die.

"Please Sam," I whispered. "You can stop this."

I nodded to Heckel and Jeckel, the guards that had trussed me up so tightly. They were beginning to look uncomfortable as well, and I wondered if they too were unwitting victims, just like us.

"I cannot," she said her eyes brimming with tears. "Our queen demands your death. She insists on your seeing your lifeless body."

My breath caught as the snake reached my swollen foot, a soft angry hissing telling me that I was in trouble, deep trouble.

"Sam, we were drugged," I yelled, suddenly furious, the snake forgotten for a nanosecond. "We’ve served this snakehead bitch for months and months."

"She showed me the light," she said softly. "She showed me the way forwards."

"Can you go on without me?" I asked, not knowing why I would say such a thing. It just seemed fitting somehow. "Because if you kill me, you will have no choice." I grimaced, more like a rictus of fear, as the heavy snake slithered up over my knee.

For a moment, she looked uncertain, and I pressed my advantage home.

"Sam… Carter, we are a team. SG1. Teal’c, Danny, you and me. Don’t you remember?"

"I…"

She held a hand to her head, blinking around in confusion.

"Colonel?" Her voice was uncertain, but finally belonged to Sam Carter, Major, not Sam the slave.

"Carter."

I lay back in the sand, sighing in relief. I had cut things a bit close. I knew from my own experience that the drug tended to wear off after a day away from the caves, and had led Carter on a merry chase based on that fact. What I hadn’t counted on, was that damn rock rolling beneath my foot, breaking my ankle.

After that, it was just a matter of time before she and her guards had found and subdued me. I awoke to find myself in my current predicament, praying like hell that I had made enough time for the drug to loosen its hold on her.

"Sam, breathe, it gets better if you take deep breaths."

I watched pant heavily, forcing the drug out of her system.

"Sir?" Her voice was soft and shaky, staring around her in bewilderment. "What happened?"

"Carter, thank God," I said, watching the guards by her side warily. So far, they seemed more confused rather than angry, but it didn’t hurt to make certain.

"We were drugged," I said. "In the cave. Do you remember?"

Her nod was a painful jerk of the head. "I do."

"Thank God," I whispered again, really meaning it. With Sam on my side, we had a chance.

""Teal’c and Daniel?" she asked, looking sick.

"Still inside the caves," I said, feeling sorry for her. I knew from my own experience that the revelation that you had blindly served someone for months against your will did not sit well.

"Oh God," she said, swaying dizzily. "I slept with her."

"So did I," I muttered, suddenly feeling equally as sick.

"We’ll get past this," I said softly. "We will. But in order to do that, we need to get home first."

"Sir, I…"

"Talk later. Action now if you please," I said in a pleasant singsong voice, watching as one of the guards lowered his staff weapon threateningly.

"Sorry sir."

Two loud crunches told me that Carter was putting paid to her companions, and then she was at my side, her exotic perfume wafting over me like an aromatic cloud.

"Not too close," I said warningly

Holy Hannah!"

Her breath caught as she finally saw the snake, camouflaged on my bright clothes up until now.

"Can you go and get help?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head. "Not without a GDO sir. But if I gate to PGY 562, I can meet my father and the other Tok’ra and use his ID. That’s if they’re still there," she said thoughtfully.

"Do it," I murmured, praying they still were.

Her eyes were wide, watching the snake.

"Sir, what about you?"

I laughed, a soft laugh to be sure, but hopefully a reassuring one.

"You just get help. Let me worry about snakeykins."

I cursed softly as a soft hissing weight slowly crawled up over my belt.

"Sir, what can I do?" she asked.

"I told you. Get help," I said firmly, raising my eyes to hers for a split second. "Tell them that this particular snakehead has an affinity for, hell, I don’t know, something similar to what Seth had. Tell her that…"

"Why aren’t you affected?" Carter interrupted, curious to the last. "Why aren’t I?"

"I was," I grimaced. "But something seemed… odd, wrong. The further from the cave I got, the better I felt."

"After a while the effects wear off," she whispered. "That’s what happened to you, and after a while, to me. That means Teal’c and Daniel could be…"

"No," I said softly, trying desperately not to swallow, for fear that my Adam’s apple might spook old snakey.

"Not on your own."

She nodded, blanching as my friend slithered up my neck and onto my chin.

"Carter." My voice was raw with fear. "Get help, now."

I squeezed my eyes shut, tensing as the snake slowly made its way across my face, aware that she hadn’t moved. Instead, I felt a soft hand take mine, and I held on tight.

"Hang on Jack," she whispered, forgoing my rank, giving me much needed reassurance. "He’s almost off of you now, just the tail to go."

I took small breaths, almost panting, Carter’s hand held in a vice-like grip as I felt what she was seeing, the snake leaving my face, crawling away into the undergrowth.

Just the tail to go.

Then I felt it, a tickling, something that I had no control over.

I had to sneeze.

"Carter."

My moan was clearly audible, as was my distress.

"Hang on sir," she whispered, her voice firm. "He’s almost gone."

"I can’t…I…"

"Wachooo."

Three things happened almost simultaneously.

Carter fell backwards with a squeak, I convulsed, desperately trying to roll away from snakey, and I felt a burning pain in my upper arm.

"Ah, damn, crap."

She was back at my side in an instant, trying to pull me away from the angry snake, desperately tugging at my good arm as I fought the snake with the other, trying frantically to fling it as far from me as possible. I wasn’t having much success. The damn thing was attached to my arm like a limpet.

Her voice was like steel. "Stay still, sir."

I stiffened as I heard the distinctive sound of a staff weapon charging up, grimacing at the pain of my injuries, and hoping she would be quick. And accurate. Accurate would be nice.

Then the snake was gone and she was untying me.

"Sir, Colonel, what do I do?"

I laughed humorously, staring up into tragic blue eyes.

"Get help." I stared down at my rapidly swelling arm.

She nodded, leaning over me, the bodice of her yellow dress shimmering in the still air.

"Hang on sir, this is going to hurt."

"Carter what?" I snapped back to reality, groaning as she gently pushed the rope from my bindings under my armpit, tying it tightly around my upper arm.

"This will slow down the venom," she said with a ghost of a smile.

"We can only hope," I murmured. "Now scat."

She scatted, leaving me alone; slowly dying on a planet whose scientific designation I had long since forgotten.

"Oh God, Sam, don’t be long, I whispered.

General George Hammond looked up from his desk as the klaxon sounded, dropping his papers with a frown.

Gone were the days when his heart would leap at the sound, hoping against hope that SG1 would finally make it home, intact.

No, three months of hope, three months of futile searching had put paid to that, once and for all. They were gone, without a trace. They were all officially MIA, and life went on.

Still, when they got an unscheduled traveler, his heart would do a little leap. Just a little one, a leap of hope that was reflected on the face of the bald headed sergeant Davis as well.

"Tok’ra ID sir." He looked up expectantly.

"Open the iris." Jacob had been searching for them as well. Maybe this time…

He stared at the blue flux expectantly. First came the expected figure of General Carter and his Tok’ra aide, then that of a slim woman, dressed in buttercup yellow, her hair tied up in elaborate pins.

Sergeant Davis got there first.

"Major Carter?"

It was indeed Major Carter, and she was yelling frantically, her lovely face animated, and most importantly, alive.

It had been two hours now, and I was beginning to wonder if I was fighting my last battle ever.

It was surreal, if you could call it that.

I felt faint, and slightly nauseous, and couldn’t have moved my body, even if I had wanted to, and believe me, half an hour ago I had really, really, wanted to.

The guards had woken up not long after Carter had left, one kicking the other awake and both staring down at me silently for a moment before loping away, presumably back towards Queen Snake.

Not that it muttered much where those guards had been going, really. One look at my arm, and anybody could see that I was dying.

It was grossly swollen, a bruised mass of flesh that had at one time belonged to me. Now I couldn’t even move my fingers.

Carter’s makeshift tourniquet had stopped the venom from spreading quickly, but now its usefulness was limited, disappearing into my swollen flesh and stopping the blood flow.

Still, she had tried, and I could not fault her for that.

The guards had returned some time later, with Queen Heck in tow.

You know, silhouetted as she was, the sunlight haloing her hair, she looked a vision of loveliness. It was hard to believe she was a Gou’ald at all. Then she had crouched next to me and silently cut away Carter’s tourniquet, her lovely face twisted into a mask of cruelty.

Then I had known she was a Gou’ald.

I had wanted to kill her then.

She could see this in my eyes, and her own had glowed in satisfaction.

"Die Tau’ri." That was all she had said.

Laughing softly, she had stepped away, our eyes still locked until I felt my throat constrict, the venom making me glassy eyed as it finally began to flow unchecked through my body.

I was glad of that, not that I was going to die, but the fact that I could no longer see or speak. At least I no longer had the option of begging for my life.

Not that I would have, of course. But still, with the option gone, I could die, honor intact.

Or not.

I snapped my eyes open, sick, disorientated, and wanting the infirmary so bad, I felt like crying. In fact, I think I was, tears flowing down my numb cheeks to pool at the base of my throat. Or maybe that was sweat, pouring out of every pore as I desperately strained for life giving oxygen.

The end was near now. I could feel it in every tortured breath I took. It would be so easy just to give up to just…stop.

Not that I was going to stop. Not now, not ever. My heart, on the other hand…

At least with Carter free, she could rescue Danny and Teal’c. At least I had that satisfaction.

Then I heard distant voices. Distant voices that yelled at each other in English.

"However, the people of Dier el - Bahri, believing she had actually failed them, refused to irrigate their crops, and mass starvation took place, so bad in fact that…"

"Daniel."

My breath was gossamer soft, nevertheless, he heard, his book falling with a thunk.

"Jack?"

I couldn’t see, and my throat was sore, but I was alive.

I hand gripped my good shoulder, shaking it slightly.

"Jack? You in there?"

"Water," I moaned.

His laugh was full of relief, and I felt a straw placed between my lips.

The sipping was easy, the swallowing impossible.

"Turn him on his side," someone said urgently and I felt a soft cloth held to my mouth, people holding me as I hacked my way back into darkness.

…

"Sir?"

I awoke, blinking against the light, forgetting to grumble as the sheer joy of being able to see again washed over me.

"Doc?"

She laughed warmly and I felt the head of my bed rise, allowing me to see her and the SGC infirmary for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Welcome back, Colonel."

"Glad to be back," I murmured. "Very glad."

I allowed my brain to idle, content to wait patiently for her and her nurses to finish doing whatever tasks they had to do, and then asked the burning question.

"Doc…?"

She beat me to it.

"They’re outside. I guess you would like to see them?"

I nodded wordlessly.

…

Teal’c was the first in, followed by Daniel and Carter, her eyes lighting up when she saw me awake and aware.

"Welcome back, Colonel."

"Hello my fellow harem inmates," I murmured, making Carter blush, her eyes dark with memories.

I smiled at them, taking in Teal’c’s raised eyebrow and Daniel’s bashful smile and laughed.

"Debriefing is sure gonna be a bitch."

EINDE

RE BetaTested by CiGiK - Cape Town - South Africa - 1st May 2003