This time last week I used to have a friend called Colonel Tony Sato.

I used to. He’s gone now.

Kinda.

Damn it all to hell.

w

I carefully lift a cup of coffee to my lips, wishing like hell it were a beer. I need something alcoholic to deaden the pain of loss. Then another to chase away the bitter realization that he is still alive out there somewhere.

My friend, my colleague, and the leader of SG11 is still out there somewhere. Alone, helpless, and obeying the every whim of the Gou’ald that now controlled his brain.

God damn this job.

There are certain days when I wish my brother were here, and not in Chicago.

Dear God. Can I wish Tony dead without any shred of malice intended?

w

Oh Tony. Somehow, I don’t quite know how yet - but I swear on my mother’s grave, I intend to find out - we have failed you.

It wasn’t just me. It was the entire SGC.

Somehow, we allowed a Gou’ald through the gate to home. In you.

Moreover, the medical section didn’t notice it, something they are figuring out 24/7, or until I tell them to stop, which won’t be anytime this year, that I promise you.

I know now that Daniel had managed to take something of immense value from one of the temples we had visited recently. Don’t ask me which one.

You could ask Daniel, if you were here. He’d tell you in great depth and detail, and you would sit there and just drink it in as if you were his best archaeology student.

That always amazed me, how you could do that without your eyes glazing over like mine do whenever Daniel corners me.

In fact, that is how I will always remember you, as a quiet figure, hunched up under his desk light, following his finger and nodding as he pointed out some sort of archaeological text.

The engineer and the scholar.

Damn you Tony. Why did you try to kill me?

w

All of the sudden the coffee tastes like acid, making me throw it over my small balcony, cup and all.

w

Damn it all to hell. I should have realized immediately something was wrong with Tony, instead of inviting him into my home, and turning my back on him.

There should have been some warning of what he had become.

If only I had seen it before he…

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I watched Tony Sato carefully, trying to see past his strange behavior. " This isn’t like you Tony," I said at last. " What’s wrong?"

Tony abruptly rose to his feet, staring rigidly out of my lounge window.

" What is it Tony," I asked softly. " Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad."

The flat harmonic voice caught me completely by surprise. " It is."

I never stood a prayer. Tony spun and caught me with a perfectly executed sidekick to my throat, sending me clear across the room to impact on the small table in the corner.

Oh man that hurt. I lay on the remains of my smashed table gripping my throat with both hands praying that I was still going to be able to breathe in a minute’s time.

What the…? My brain went into a flat spin before I reined it in. Now was not the time to wonder what had happened. No, now was the time to reach for my phone and send the entire base into full alert.

That was if I could speak, which was doubtful.

Shit, shit and triple damn. This was not good. It didn’t take the brains of a rocket scientist to realize that the Gou’ald inside Sato had easily accessed Sato’s brain, finding out he was a black belt, learning precisely how to bring down a dumb Colonel called Jack O’Neill.

Damn. I should have phoned the base as soon as I realized something wasn’t quite…kosher with Sato, instead of trying to handle it myself.

But again, who would have thought? The Gou’ald sure managed to fool Doc Fraiser.

Damn. I took in deep wracking breaths, trying hard to draw in much needed air through my swollen throat and watched as Sato methodically ransacked my house, obviously looking for something in particular.

" You Tau’ri cannot be allowed to possess any information, O’Neill," the creature suddenly said, squatting next to me. " I am here to assure the Asra’c of that fact."

The Asra’c? I had heard of that name before, years ago. The Asra’c. Oh yeah, they were assassins, sent out by the Gou’ald to kill off any Tok’ra.

So what the heck did they want with me? I was no Tok’ra.

Damn Asra’c. Gou’ald assassins.

One had almost killed Carter, and had definitely killed Jolinar. She needn’t have had to go that way, even if she was a slimy worm Gou’ald type thing.

At least she had been a good slimy worm Gou’ald type thing.

And here was another Asra’c, occupying the brain of one of my best friends, Tony Sato.

All of a sudden, an irrational surge of hatred suffused me, stiffening my fingers.

Unfortunately, my rigid posture was noticed.

Sato, or whoever he was, instantly lept at me, his feet landing on the outstretched fingers of my left hand with a sickening crunch.

" Oh crap," I rasped, drawing my broken appendage to my chest with a moan. It hurt, badly, making me feel light headed as I saw splintered bone sticking through the skin.

" The To’nal de Ashra’c," Sato breathed, his eyes glowing. " I want it."

" The what?" I whispered, having no idea what he was talking about.

" The To’nal de Ashra’c. His eyes were wild, unfocussed, making me cringe.

"Your…yes…Daniel Jackson has it. I wish it back. Untouched."

"Daniel has a lot of things," I said cautiously." I really have no idea which artifact you are talking about."

The Gou’ald smiled, and then slammed my head back onto the remains of the table before even saw him coming, making me see stars.

" You have no idea what I’m talking about, hmm?"

" Ess."

" You do O’Neill. His grin was pure evil. " You just choose not to remember."

The Gou’ald got to his feet and resumed his search, heading for the kitchen, pulling out drawers, and upending them as he did so. " My host tells me that you have some rope somewhere," he muttered to himself, making me feel cold. The Tony Sato I knew so well was gone.

" Maybe you moved it into the kitchen…" he muttered, disappearing behind the partially open door.

Allright. I was moving immediately, painfully crawling towards the front door. What precisely I was going to do when I got out there was a moot point. I couldn’t even breathe properly, let alone speak. As it was, I should have known better.

" Ah-ah Tau’ri." Slowly I rolled onto my back, watching as the thing pretending to be Tony Sato casually wandered back into the lounge, a fully charged zat gun clutched negligently in one hand. He smiled as my eyes fastened on it.

" Oh this little thing? Oh no, I couldn’t do that. Why, that would be way too quick for someone of the likes of you." He regarded me dispassionately for a moment.

" On the other hand, it will stop you trying to escape for a while, so why not?"

I watched, hypnotized, as he turned the Zat to maximum power before my brain screamed at my body to run. Fat chance

I tried; I’ll give you that. My escape attempt lasted oh, all of about thirty seconds. The next thing I knew was the fact that I was breathing in fire.

Exquisite fire that sizzled across my nerves and sent me into blessed unconsciousness

w

At least I was breathing easier when I next awoke. I lay for a while, watching my ceiling undulate with every heartbeat, quite happy to do nothing for a while. Damn it. That had not been friggin fun. Well, at least I was still alive.

Swallowing was painful, but obviously, Sato, or whoever he was now, had not meant any real damage.

Yet.

My hand was another story. It throbbed painfully, and from what I had seen of it after Tony had finished tromping on me, I needed medical attention pretty quickly.

I was also tied up. Well, my feet were tied up, to be more precise.

From the looks of it, Sato had used my entire kitchen roll. Meters of it was wrapped around my boots, effectively binding my feet together, making it impossible for me to move.

At least he left my hands free; I thought darkly, although precisely what damage I could do with one hand was debatable. Throw something hard and heavy at his head perhaps?

Yeah right.

" I wish to speak to Doctor Daniel Jackson," I familiar voice said from behind me. " Yes, I’ll hold…"

Daniel? God, the Gou’ald was going to lure Daniel to my house.

Then common sense kicked in. Daniel would never leave the base with an artifact. Doing such a thing was so forbidden that he wouldn’t even dream of doing it, and Sato knew this. No, whatever the snakehead was up to, it had to be something else.

The moment Sato leaned forwards and something cold touched my neck, I knew what it was.

" Hello, Dr Jackson?"

He waited patiently for Daniel to go through the greeting ritual, and then spoke again, or rather, the Gou’ald spoke.

" I have Colonel O’Neill lying at my feet, Tau’ri," he said. " He is injured, and his feet are tied. I also have a wire garrote around his neck. It really is a simple device, consisting of a long thin piece of steel piano wire, to which I have attached a fork from his kitchen. How it works is even simpler. When I twist the fork, like so, the garrote tightens, and your precious Colonel starts to die."

He wasn’t kidding. I wasn’t quick enough to get my fingers under the wire, and was left with clawing at the garrote futilely, as first my oxygen was restricted, then cut off completely.

His voice was calm as I chocked helplessly, desperate for air.

" Do you hear that?" he asked pleasantly. " That is the sound of your friend dying." He held the receiver to my lips as I made small gagging noises, my vision graying.

" What do I want?" He laughed pleasantly as I tried to pry loose his hold on the fork, to no avail. " Why nothing much, Dr Jackson. Just the To’nal de Asra’c." His voice changed, became flat and emotionless as my hand fell away, too weak now to fight.

"Bring it here, to O’Neill’s house, and come alone, or the Colonel will die."

Daniel obviously said something else, but I no longer cared.

www

I awoke in stages.

First came the awareness that I was face down on my lounge carpet, and it needed cleaning.

For a while, I was content with this, and then slowly the memories came back as to why I had my nose buried in my carpet.

Because the Gou’ald wanted me that way.

Oh, crap.

I felt someone breathing next to me, and lay absolutely still. Let the bastard think I was unconscious. At least that way he wasn’t trying to detach my head from my body.

God-Damn-it.

I felt an ache in my gut, and realized that it was grief. My friend was dead, just like Chuck Kawalsky had died the minute one of those things had moved in.

" Are you awake Colonel?" The harmonic voice asked.

I didn’t reply, which was a really stupid thing to have done.

The booted foot was totally unexpected, catching me in my side, the force of it literally flopping me onto my back.

My mouth opened in a silent scream of agony, but I was determined that I wasn’t going to make a sound.

Cracked ribs would mend.

After a while, I was aware that the Gou’ald in Tony’s skin was talking to me, and made an effort to listen.

" My host tells me that SG1 are known as…Gung ho, and protect their leader at all costs." He paused, looking down at me thoughtfully. " What I need is a distraction, something to take Jackson’s mind off me for a while."

He saw the surprise on my face.

" No, I have no intention of killing him. I haven’t been paid to do that." His smile was dispassionate.

" No. All I was asked to do was retrieve the To’nal de Asra’c, which I will do."

" So you will let…us live?" Talking was almost impossible, but I managed.

His eyes glittered with alien malevolence. " Him yes. You, no."

He removed the Zat from a pocket, making me stiffen.

" My host tells me that you cannot survive two doses from the Zatnikatel, which pleases me immensely." He casually kicked my bound feet, making me flinch. "Whilst it is true that I was not paid to kill you, the information that you have died will be enormously valuable."

I stared up at him defiantly, feeling sick to my stomach as he turned to the lounge window.

" Ah, he is here, alone and with a parcel, just like I asked."

He grinned happily. "My host does indeed know the habits of the illustrious SG1, which is a valuable thing indeed. Lucky me."

" Bastard," I snarled.

" Take a deep breath Colonel," he said abruptly, the dispassionate Gou’ald firmly in charge.

" Take a deep breath and die."

Despite myself, I did as he asked, only to arch my back in soundless agony as what seemed like a trillion volts hissed into me.

Never in my life had I experienced such pure pain as I did that day, and I have had plenty of painful things happen to me along the way in my life.

This was way different from the first zat blast.

This was sheer fire, bathing me from head to toes, making me writhe helplessly, an eventual howl of anguish shattering the room, a sound I knew that Daniel could hear, sending me into the depths of despair.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the electricity abruptly left me, allowing me to collapse in a twitching heap, my muscle spasms involuntary.

Then I smelt a familiar after-shave, and knew that Sato was gone.

For a while, I was unable to open my eyes, scaring me. I knew from the weird way my heart was beating that I was in danger of dying, and had no wish to do so in darkness.

Actually, the dying part I didn’t really mind. We all had to go sometime.

But to do so in darkness? That was my worst nightmare. Well, one of them.

To my relief, my lounge slowly swum into focus, and I realized I that had had my eyes tightly shut.

" Jack. Thank God."

"D…D…Danny?"

Daniel dropped the phone he had been holding and flew to my side.

" Don’t try to talk," he said, his eyes moist. " The others are coming."

I didn’t want them here. Not if Sato was still around. I would rather die then allow them to walk into a trap.

" S…s...s…" I couldn’t say his name. The room was dark, and the pain in my chest too intense.

" Sato?" he asked gently, casting anxious eyes towards the door.

" Y…es."

He stared down at me his face pale. "Gone. He went into your garden, placed some sort of beacon on the ground, and Tel-tac rings took him.

I sighed, trying to ignore the pain, but knew it was impossible.

" Danny," I breathed. " You know how to do CPR?"

His expression turned frantic.

" Hang in there, Jack."

I stared up at him, feeling serene. "Can’t. Zatted twice."

The first severe chest pain convulsed me as he tore my shirt open.

www

After that, things got a bit surreal.

I was aware that Daniel was doing compressions, counting aloud as he had been taught, his lips on mine as he occasionally forced in a deep breath of life giving oxygen.

Then my patio door crashed open with a sound of tinkling glass, and suddenly Daniel was gone, replaced with other people, their hands rough as I was pushed this way and that.

My grip on consciousness was tenacious at best, but I was determined not to let myself go, lest I never woke again, something Dr Janet Fraiser seemed to realize.

She spoke to me continuously, holding a mask to my face as they worked on me. Her voice was light, but her face was strained, and I felt for her. She should never have allowed us into her dispassionate world.

Then we were moving. To my surprise there was an air ambulance sat on the road in front of my house, my neighbors staring as I was loaded inside. A faceless Captain placed a heavier oxygen mask on my face, and then patted me reassuringly as the rotors got up to speed.

Finally we took off, and at last, surrounded by people I knew I could trust, I allowed myself to drift.

" Colonel O’Neill. Are you with us?"

I grimaced. Doctor Warner may be a very good doctor, but he had the bedside manner of a Mack truck.

" No. I’m without you," I rasped, feeling like I had been strangled. It goes to show how heavily I was drugged that it took me at least ten minutes into Doc Warner’s complicated exercise routine before I remembered that I had been.

As I expected, Warner ignored my pathetic attempt at confusing levity.

"Please touch your nose with your left hand."

" I can’t," I growled, blinking at him blearily. "For some strange reason it is heavily bandaged."

" We tend to do that when we fix things," he said dryly. " Now, do as I ask."

" Can’t."

He gave a long-suffering sigh. " Colonel, please touch your nose with your heavily bandaged left hand.

I obeyed sulkily, wondering when precisely Doc Warner had managed to tune into my wavelength.

I spent the next twenty or so minutes, going through a myriad of different exercises, before he finally allowed me to sleep again.

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Tony was keeping me company. For some minutes before I actually opened my eyes, I had felt that Tony was watching me, leaning against the doorjamb like he always did when I ended up in the infirmary, annoying the crap out of any nurse that happened to pass by.

So strong was the feeling that he was there, I was most confused when I finally opened my eyes to find out that he wasn’t.

For a while, I was completely disorientated, staring at the door with a blank expression.

He had been there. So where had he gone?

I sat up, ignoring the dizziness.

" Colonel. Colonel, please. If you’re not careful you’ll pull out your drip."

" Tony?"

" There’s no one here Colonel," a nurse said in a soft voice.

I looked up at her, a frizzy-haired lieutenant.

" He was there, next to the door. He was watching me."

The nurse’s eyes met someone else’s beyond my head before she smiled at me. " If you say so, sir."

" Go call him," I urged.

She didn’t move. Instead my IV tugged, causing a brief flare of pain before the darkness returned.

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I awoke to find my team all sitting quietly around my bed, watching me closely.

" Do I snore?" I asked irritably.

Carter shook her head, her eyes sympathetic. " No, but you were muttering quietly to yourself, and our experience in things like this told us you were going to wake soon."

I thought about moaning about the fact that I obviously need to cut down on my infirmary visits, when I recalled what I had been thinking about prior to wakening, and all levity fled.

" Sato?"

For a moment there was absolute silence, then Daniel answered.

" He’s Chi’tin now."

" The outside of insects?" I asked puzzled. " What’s that got to do with what happened to Sato?"

Daniel was shaking his head. " No, not chitin, Chi’tin. He stressed the last part of the name, making me understand.

" The Gou’ald in Sato?" I asked, feeling sick.

" The Asra’c," Teal’c replied.

" Who just happens to be a Gou’ald as well." Carter said. " One that has now got access to a hell of a lot of the inner workings of the SGC."

" Codes can be changed," I murmured, "and better already have been." I shifted, grimacing at the pain this small action caused me. " No, what worries me more, is what Sato knows about me, and how much he has told the Gou’ald."

" All." Teal’c said, his face dark.

I nodded in agreement, and then subsided with a hiss of pain, waving off the attendant nurse.

" I agree. He knew just how to take me out, and he knew that two blasts from a zat could kill." I nodded to Daniel. "Thank you by the way."

He nodded, looking spooked. " Just don’t do that again, okay?"

" I’ll try not to," I murmured, watching him closely, " although it was good to watch a master in action."

" You were unconscious," he said incredulously. " You had been strangled and then deliberately given a heart attack, for God’s sake. You were out of it."

" You were wearing a black tee shirt and jeans. You told me Sato or…insect man had escaped via Tel-tac."

" That was before your heart stopped beating," Daniel said softly.

" Then how did I know about the air-ambulance sat in my road?" I asked.

His silence was my answer.

" You were semi-conscious," a familiar voice said, and Dr Fraiser appeared briefly in view, hanging her rain soaked coat over a sink. " It happens in quite a few cases, believe me. Luckily for you, once we got your heart beating again, you were more or less out of danger."

I had been dreading this. " More or less?"

Her smile made me relax slightly. " Dr Warner has already ascertained that your higher motor functions are unimpaired and…"

She smiled at my confused expression. " No I guess you don’t remember the exercises," she murmured.

" Well, lets just say that your heart will be fine, Colonel. Although a couple of weeks of doing absolutely nothing will be the order of the day."

She glared at me warningly. " And I mean doing absolutely nothing." She looked smug when I grimaced.

"Besides that, Dr Warner has stitched up where Sato’s piano wire cut your throat, and a specialist from Academy General has seen to your hand."

" So you could say that I survived an assault by a colleague, who cut my throat and caused a heart attack," I said, frowning.

She nodded briskly. "In a nutshell, yes. Luckily for you, Daniel was there."

" Although I caused everything in the first place," he said bitterly.

Ahah. I had been waiting for the self-recriminations to arrive. So apparently had Carter.

" It wasn’t your fault," she said softly, allowing me to snuggle back in bed. "Nobody faults your actions at all, and that includes General Hammond who will tell you so himself when he arrives. You were given a choice, give the artifact to…Chi’tin or the Colonel died. Essentially, you had no choice at all."

"I took the damn urn in the first place," he muttered.

That got my attention. "So it was an urn?"

He nodded. " PG7 266. The crystal tower, remember it?"

I did.

" What was in it that it was worth killing over?"

" I hadn’t go to it yet," he muttered miserably, looking at his hands. "It was scheduled to be looked at after I had finished with those tablets that SG2 had bought back from J7G T58."

" So we’ll never know," I said softly. " We’ll never know why an assassin Gou’ald would take over a good friend of ours, somehow sneak undetected through the SGC, and hold me to ransom for it?"

" No."

I sighed, feeling mentally exhausted. " At least he did some good," I said, watching Fraiser watch me.

" In what way?" Carter asked.

"He showed us how woefully inadequate the SGC is security-wise. He showed us the problem areas, like medical for one."

" We’re working to find out how he managed to get through undetected," Fraiser said.

" Don’t stop until you do," I said.

" Yes sir," she said, knowing an order when she got one. " Now I want you to sleep. SG1 can return tomorrow."

I too knew an order when I got one, and silently watched my team head for the door, when a horrible thought snuck in, prompting me to call out.

" Carter?"

She turned. " Yes sir?"

" A moment please."

She returned and stood next to me.

" Sir?"

" It’s Sato." From her expression, she knew what was coming. " He knows me too well, which is how he got the drop on me in the first place."

She nodded " And now he is a Gou’ald."

" Which is even more of a problem, because the Gou’ald now knows what Sato knows. Which is how to stop me."

She frowned. " That could cause a very big problem."

" No kidding, I said sarcastically. " So here’s what I want you to do. If we ever meet up with that bastard again, I want you to take over command of SG1."

She looked at me, askance, as I knew she would.

" Sir?"

" Tony knows what I know," I explained. " We went on the same courses, and he was in my unit when…well, suffice it to say, he knows me."

I glared up at a familiar nurse with frizzy hair as she replaced a bottle of something above my head.

" Sorry sir," she said. " Doctor’s orders."

" Do it quick," I growled, showing some teeth as Carter smiled at me.

When the nurse was gone, I continued.

"I have a funny feeling we haven’t seen the last of …Insect man, so I want you to consider this a direct order. If we even so much of catch a whiff of him, you instantly take command, okay?"

She nodded in understanding. " Because he doesn’t know me, and consequently, anything I do will be different to what you would do."

I nodded sleepily, having a sneaky suspicion that I had just been sedated.

" In one, Major. In one."

She was still looking at me puzzledly when sleep took me.

* EINDE.

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