Jason

By BadgerGater

E-mail: [email protected]

Category: Action, adventure, drama

Season: Three, shortly after Forever In A Day and Past & Present

Spoilers: Small ones for Prisoners, Forever In a Day, Past & Present

Rating: PG, Jack has a language problem, you know

Warnings: violence

Summary: SG-1 makes an unexpected discovery on a seemingly uninhabited planet

Author’s note: Tk kept pushing, and finally, my muse gave in and finished this one. Thanks, mon ami.

<><><><><>

"I hate the rain."

"Jack, last week you were complaining about the heat, and the week before that about the cold..." Daniel reminded me.

"Okay, so I hate weather," I groused, pulling my mud-caked boot out of another puddle. "I mean what did we do, land here in the middle of the damn monsoon season?"

"Well, actually, Sir, it appears that this is the dry season...." Major Carter answered, always reasonable. Always informed. Hell, she even looked dry.

"Carter, if this is the dry season..."

"The majority of the year this whole area of the planet is completely underwater and totally inaccessible, Sir. We've been observing the weather on this planet for 16 months, Colonel. There are distinct weather cycles: a long damp spring, a short dry summer, a long damp fall and a short monsoon-like winter. And this *is* the Dry Season, Sir, summer."

"Yeah, right." I muttered, feeling another cold raindrop slide under the collar of my shirt, rolling down my back. I shivered. Wet. Cold. Muddy. Miserable. Why did I ever imagine I liked this job? Why didn't I just retire and go live on a desert island where it was warm and dry and the fishing was good? 'Because you'd be bored silly after three days, Jack old boy, and you damn well know it,' my subconscious told me. I told it to shut up, but unfortunately it obeys orders about as well as the rest of me does. "So, what is it that's so all-fired important about this planet that we have to come here anyway?" I shot a glare at Daniel. "And don't you dare tell me artifacts," I said, wagging a wet finger at his face.

"From the tapes we secured during the last dry season, Colonel O'Neill, it appeared there was an abandoned Goa'uld base in the foothills near the mountain, there," Teal'c informed me, pointing up into the foothills.

"Up there? Well, okay, then, as long as we're above the damn flood plain," I muttered, and marched on.

We'd been walking for about four hours and we could see the buildings now, solid looking stone structures that looked sturdy, warm and most of all, dry. "Dry season, right," I mumbled, shaking more rain from my poncho as I followed the faint trail that seemed to be winding it's way up to the buildings.

So there I was, minding my own business, on point at the head of our little procession, when there was another of those big puddles clear across the trail. I stepped in, expected to find another inch or two of mud, and instead...

...suddenly found myself swimming in it, actually, more like drowning in it. My foot didn't hit bottom, and I crashed face first into a pool of slithery mud, inadvertently swallowing a mouthful on my way down.

Shit, drowning, and in a pool of mud no less. I didn't know which way was up, my lungs were starving for air, and my backpack and other gear were weighing me down. I fumbled for the straps, dropping my vest and pack while instinctively trying to tread water, well actually, tread mud. I could have sworn I felt something, well, something alive, brush past me. 'Hold on, Jack, hold on,' I told myself, because in another moment I was going to lose the battle and my lungs were going to demand I take a gasp for air, and I would be dead, very, very dead, with this gunk in my lungs.

And then I felt something, someone's hand, latching onto my shoulder and I was being hauled upward. My head burst out into light and air and I gulped in a mouthful of oxygen, spitting out dirty water and feeling the grittiness of something like sand in my teeth as I was dragged onto terra firma.

Teal'c had a hold of me. "Colonel O'Neill, are you well?"

I rolled over, onto my stomach, pushing myself to hands and knees. "Oh... I'm... just...peachy," I managed to gasp between coughing up gouts of quite disgusting looking brown water. Someone was handing me a canteen and I hastily tried to rinse my mouth, spitting out the water, still feeling dirt in my teeth.

"Sir?..."

I was coughing, choking out the ocean of gunk I had swallowed, sipping more water. "Oh (cough) I'm fine, (cough) Carter. Just felt (cough, cough) now was the perfect (cough, cough) time for a little (cough) mud bath."

"Sir.."

I was trying to draw a decent breath, trying to keep from losing my lunch, trying to wipe some of the mud out of my eyes, hell, trying to do way too many things all at once, and succeeding at none of them. Finally, I rolled over onto my back, closed my eyes, and just breathed. All right, that was one thing I could manage okay.

After a couple of minutes, when my breathing had returned to something near normal, I sat up, hands on knees, head hanging.

"Jack, are you hurt?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Nothing a bath won't cure." Bath, clean clothes, dry clothes, new equipment: all the things I didn't have. I moved various body parts carefully, and everything seemed to be in working order. Nothing damaged but my pride, I thought darkly.

"Are you sure you're okay, Sir?" asked Carter.

I gave the Major a dirty look (okay, okay, that was a bad pun, even for me) and I suddenly realized Daniel was chuckling. "Daniel," I said warningly.

His laughter spilled over. "Sorry, Jack, it's just, oh God, I can't help it. You look...."

I let him laugh. It's been a while since I heard him laugh like that, like he meant it, probably since before Sha're died. So, okay, my pride was wounded, but there was no one here to see except the four of us. Besides, I'd get even later. It's one of O'Neill's laws: Don't get mad, get even.

Carter looked ready to start laughing as well.

"No giggling, Major," I ordered. I don't have to let her laugh.

"Ahh, Sir, I think we better find somewhere to get you cleaned up, Colonel."

"Right." Mustering as much dignity as a soaked, mud-caked Colonel could manage, I climbed to my feet and headed up the path, boots squishing with every step. We put Teal'c on point, so he could use his staff weapon to check each puddle, but we didn't find any more of those bottomless mud pits.

---------------------------

Once we arrived at the abandoned stone huts, we set about checking the village.

"Colonel, I've found just the thing for you, Sir," Carter announced happily, leading me to a building that appeared to be a bathhouse. Though the water wasn't warm, there was clean water flowing through a stone 'tub' of sorts.

"Great!" and I stepped in.

"Ah, Jack, don't you think you ought to, ah, take those dirty clothes off?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, right. And change into what?" I asked. "This way, they'll get clean and I'll get clean," I said, sinking down into the water and soaking in it. While it was a touch cool, I thought with a shiver, at least it wasn't cold. And it was clean.

I was able to get the worst of the mud off, and with Carter gone off to make camp, I stripped off my outer gear and t-shirt, down to my underwear, and hung my BDUs over the railing. Teal'c had gathered some wood and started a fire to warm the room and I was hoping that would dry my clothes at least a little while I washed. Daniel had loaned me his soap. I'd lost everything in my pack-- all my personal gear, plus ammo, blankets, food. Even my MP-5 was gone, and I really felt naked without that. All I had left was one really dirty sidearm, one soon to be rusty knife, and the clothes I was wearing.

I'd made do with worse, I reminded myself.

About the time I was starting to feel a chill from the water, Daniel came back with a blanket. "Here," he offered, so I climbed out and wrapped myself in it, and sat down to give my clothes a chance to dry a little more.

I shivered.

"You okay?" he asked with concern.

"Oh, I'm just wonderful. I enjoy sitting around, half naked, waiting for my clothes to dry and wondering how I'm going to get by without any of my gear for the next five days," I said morosely. Okay, so I don't always cope well with adversity.

"We could go back," said Daniel quietly.

"And what, miss the dry season?" I said, waving out the doorway at the rain which had begun falling again. "We've got shelter, and we should have enough supplies to go around."

"Colonel?" Carter's voice floated in the door.

I pulled the blanket more tightly around me. "Okay, Carter. I'm decent."

"Sir, thought you might need this. Try to get your sidearm cleaned, Sir," she said, handing over her cleaning kit.

"Thanks." At least it would give me something to do while my clothes dried. I took the Beretta apart, cleaning it as best as I could. Wasn't the best job, and wouldn't satisfy any drill sergeant I've ever met, but it made the thing useable at least.

Once I was done, impatient to be doing something and figuring my clothes were mostly dry and probably as dry as they were going to get on this godforsaken monsoon planet anyway, I pulled them on. Damp, but serviceable. The boots might never recover, but everything else was at least relatively clean.

I went to find the others, following their voices to the largest building in the complex of stone huts that I conservatively figured at 35-40 buildings of varying sizes.

You could put a hockey rink in the building where I found my team. Daniel and Sam were excitedly arguing over little squiggly lines on a series of stone tablets.

"Don't drool over them, kids," I said.

They ignored me, intent on their argument, so I strolled over to the far wall where Teal'c was inspecting a device, the metal rusted. "So, what's that all about?" I asked, pointing at the other two.

"I do not know, O'Neill. They have been excited since entering this building, talking about someone named Jason."

"God, not the guy with the chainsaw and the hockey mask?" I desperately hoped.

"No, Jack," Daniel answered this time. "Jason and the Argonauts."

"Astronauts?" I asked with a smirk.

"No Argonauts. The ship Argos. In Greek mythology, they set sail in search of the Golden Fleece."

"I know there's a lot of water on this planet, but really...."

"Jack, the myth says they left aboard the good ship Argos to find the Golden Fleece. So, maybe the Argos wasn't a sailing ship but a spaceship."

"Okay, Daniel, now you're stretching it."

"But look, this picture, it looks like the relief of Jason on the ancient temple at...."

"Okay, okay, okay. So it looks like your Jason fella."

"And this looks like..."

Even I could see the next part, "a golden sheep."

Daniel was beaming. "Right!"

"Sure. And this is important because..."

"Because it indicates inter-action with Earth at some time in the past. Either they really did leave Earth and come here, or they went from here to Earth and spread their story."

"And Sir," Carter's voice was less enthused but no less excited, "you might want to come and take a look at this."

In the next room was another picture of that Jason guy, a vivid, life-like, full size seven foot tall painting of the mythic Greek here, complete with eyes that, quite distinctly, glowed.

"Oh shit," I muttered.

"Oh, that about says it all, Sir," said Carter.

I looked around at the rest of the massive walls. "And these would be?" I swept my arm to indicate the other paintings, more huge warriors, dozens of them, covering the walls, each with a nifty little gold tattoo on his forehead.

"The Argonauts," said Daniel, happily.

"His Jaffa," I said, not nearly so excited as the others.

--------------

Daniel wanted to camp in the hockey rink, okay, that's what I dubbed the big place, but no way was I going to sleep in a room with those glowing eyes watching me. I opted to set up our camp in a little building by the bathhouse. "More defensible," I reasoned. "Not so hard to patrol or keep clean, and better access to fresh water." They didn't believe me, but what the heck. I'm the leader of this little expedition, so I do get to make the decisions. Well, some of them, at least. And we really weren't all that far from the hockey rink.

We took turns on watch that first night. Off planet, no matter how quiet or uninhabited a place seems, I insist on keeping a watch, all night, every night. Teal'c, because he needs only a few hours of that kel'no-meditation stuff, usually stands a double late watch. I give Daniel the first, Carter the second, Teal'c stands a double middle of the night, and I take the graveyard shift, those cold and quiet hours just before dawn. They are also, in my experience, the most dangerous. Many an enemy, human or otherwise, likes to attack before dawn, when sleep is deepest.

------------------------

No attacks that first night. After breakfast, Daniel and Sam went back to the Argonauts room and I took Teal'c with me to walk around and check out the other buildings. I carefully avoided all mud puddles, big or small, and managed to survive the morning without another mudbath.

At noon, we gathered again at the hockey rink.

"Sir, we found a passageway leading off this hall. It goes into a tunnel that appears to be dug into the hillside, but it's blocked by debris. We'd like to take a further look at it, Sir."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean unblock it? As in move the rocks? Manual labor type thing?"

"Ah, yes, Sir."

"And what is it you expect to find back there in that 'cave' behind those big, heavy rocks, Major?"

Daniel spoke up. "Well, at this point we don't know, but maybe the Argos itself."

"Or maybe the Argonauts?" I suggested.

"No, they must surely be long gone. This place has been deserted for centuries."

"O'Neill," spoke up Teal'c, "it is true that the Goa'uld often leave behind equipment, sometimes simply abandoning it, sometimes planning to come back to it in the future."

"Ahh, like caching supplies for the next mission," I said.

"That is correct, O'Neill," Teal'c agreed.

"Okay, then, campers, let's take a look."

We walked about 50 yards down a large, wide tunnel, with high ceilings, before finding evidence of a blast. I showed Carter and Teal'c the weapons marks that scarred the walls. "This would have taken a good sized explosion to do this much damage," I commented.

Teal'c nodded. "A yoshnonracnadital at least."

I looked quizzically at the Jaffa. "A yoshna-what?" Why couldn't the Goa'uld ever give things a short, simple, to the point name? The way they name things must be related to their over the top fashion sense. Warped, all of them, I thought.

"Yoshnonracnadital, a type of Goa'uld grenade," he explained. "Similar to the shock grenade, but more powerful. Designed to destroy large structures like buildings or bridges."

"Ahh, a yosh-grenade." I dubbed it.

Teal'c simply nodded.

Just ahead, the tunnel's ceiling was collapsed, completely blocking our path.

I climbed up onto shattered, tilted slabs of rock, and tried to shine my light through. "I don't see anything ahead but more stone," I told Daniel from halfway up the pile.

"I know, but I think this could be something important, Jack," Daniel's face still held that sense of excitement I hadn't seen for weeks. "The writings on that stone tablet, at the entrance to the tunnel, they list equipment. Like an inventory?"

"Okay, let's give it a try, then. See if we can make any progress. If it's too much to move, then we'll call home for help with the heavy lifting."

----------------------

We spent the rest of the day moving stones, clearing a path and proceeding about 10 feet into the rubble. Just about at the point where I was going to call off this exercise in bodybuilding, my light shone through into an opening of sorts, and glinted off metal. "Well, looky here, kids. I think we may be making some progress." I announced. "We'll dig more in the morning."

-----------

All that digging had really worn me out, I realized halfway through my supper. Sitting around the campfire over our ever-tasty MRE's, I suddenly discovered my eyes sliding closed. God, I was tired. "I think I'll turn in early tonight. Daniel, first watch, Carter second. Teal'c, wake me at 0400."

I got a couple of odd looks. It *was* early for me to be turning in, but I headed for my blankets, well the one I had on loan from Daniel, and using Teal'c's pack as a pillow (my pack being somewhere in the bottom of that mudpit back down the trail), I fell asleep.

----------------------------

I woke several hours later. Carter, on watch, was sitting at the building's doorway, looking out, her back to the glowing embers of our fire. I was chilly, shivering, and as I climbed out of my blanket on my way to get a cup of coffee, I started to cough. Coughed a couple more times, but a drink of the strong, hot brew eased my throat.

"Everything okay, Carter?" I asked, walking up behind her.

"Yes Sir." In the dim light of a pair of small moons, I saw a worried look on her face as she turned to me. "Are you feeling all right, Sir?"

"Fine," I answered quickly, stifling another cough.

"Sir, you did turn in awfully early. And you've been restless, and coughing..."

"I'm okay, Carter. Maybe a touch of a cold."

"Sir, you never get sick."

"I'm fine. Really," I told her, and headed back to my blanket.

-----------------------

I wasn't feeling so fine by the time Teal'c's hand touched my shoulder to awaken me for my watch. First, I never sleep through my own personal internal alarm clock wake-up call. I should have been wide eyed at 0350, and I wasn't. I rolled over with a groan, and a cough. My throat felt scratchy and my head was stuffy. Oh great, a cold. Just what I needed.

I got myself another cup of coffee and took up the watch-post at the doorway as Teal'c settled in for a rest. It was quiet, few night sounds, just a slight breeze that carried the planet's wet, musty scent. That's probably where the cold came from, I thought morosely, cursing this damn damp, wet, cold planet as I coughed.

As the sun rose, about 0530, someone stirred behind me. It was Carter, rummaging around in her pack, and then coming over to the door.

"Morning, Carter."

"Morning, Sir. Thought you might want these, Colonel," she offered, handing me a couple of pills in a bubble pack. "Decongestants, Sir. Sounds like you've come down with a cold."

"Ya think?" I asked, noting my voice was a little hoarse. I popped the pills and swallowed them with a last sip of nearly cold coffee. "Thanks, Major."

"Sir, maybe we should head back."

"And why would that be, Major?"

"Well, without your pack, Colonel, we *are* short of supplies and equipment," she said.

Yeah, right. "And the real reason, Carter?"

"You're sick, Sir." she said softly.

"I have a little cold. Nothing to get panicked about."

"Sir, you never get sick, colds, the flu, any of those common things. And you did take a nasty dunking the other day, getting cold and wet like that. Plus you swallowed some of that water, there could have been anything in that stuff...Sir," she added.

"Major, I'm fine. It's a cold. Nothing fatal. Quit worrying." My order ended in a coughing fit.

"Sir..."

"Carter, we are *not* going back. Is that clear?" I said, sternly.

"We could flag this planet for a future visit, Sir."

"Right. And they'll send that team of archeologists, what SG-13....

"SG-7, Sir."

"Yeah, SG-7. Not us."

"Us? Uh, you don't usually like this kind of archeology stuff, Sir."

"No, I don't," I answered her honestly. Maybe it was the fact that I was tired, or maybe it was those decongestants, I don't know. "Carter, when is the last time you saw Daniel looking this happy, huh? Smiling. Making jokes. Excited about something?"

"It's been a while, Sir," she admitted.

"A long while. So I am not going to haul our butts home early and spoil Daniel's fun just because I've got a little bitty cold. He needs this."

She smiled. "That's very generous of you, Sir."

I tried to look grumpy. Colonel's are not supposed to be generous, it ruins their image as hard-ass military tough guys. "Just being a good team leader, Carter."

"Yes, Sir. That you are, Sir," she said, and turned quickly away.

Okay, so now I've gone and done it, completely blown my reputation as a hard case. I don't think Carter will tell anyone, though.

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So we stayed on Wetworld. I felt rotten all day, but I helped move a few more stones as we slowly worked our way toward the opening in the tunnel.

I was working beside Daniel, digging out some rocks (really rocks this time, not even Daniel would call these artifacts) when another coughing spell hit me. Daniel looked at me worriedly.

"Dusty in here," I said, trying to explain it.

"Jack, you ought to get out of here."

I backed out of the narrow spot where we were working, trading places with Teal'c. I found my canteen and with my back against the wall, let myself slide down until I was sitting on the floor. I took a long drink of water, feeling hot and tired. Carter was there when I looked up. "Sir," she felt my forehead. "I think you're running a fever."

"Oh for crying out loud, Carter, I've been up there digging. I'm hot and tired."

"You're sick, Sir. With all due respect, I think we should leave."

"No," I told her. "We are not leaving. I'll be fine with a little rest."

----------------------

I wasn't fine, and I knew it. I sat there on the tunnel floor, my head down, trying to catch a decent breath and knew I wasn't okay at all. My chest hurt and my head hurt, and the pills Carter had given me hadn't helped at all.

I think I fell asleep, because a fair amount of time had passed, and I suddenly realized the voices from the tunnel had changed. Daniel, Teal'c and Carter had broken through into the clear space on the other side of the rock fall. I climbed to my feet, having to pause a minute while the tunnel tilted, then righted itself. Oh, great. Steadying myself with a hand against the wall, I walked toward our dig and pulled myself up on the rockpile.

"Hey guys, you could have waited for me."

They all turned to look as I scrambled down the rock pile into the newly opened area, and I swear, they all looked guilty.

"You were, ah, sound asleep Jack so we thought we'd let you rest, since you're sick," Daniel said.

"Look, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not sick, I've just got a little cold?" I snapped, trying to look angry. Hard to do when your knees suddenly go weak and you are about to hit the floor. Thankfully, Teal'c grabbed me and eased me over to sit on a convenient chunk of rock.

"Right, you're not sick," muttered Daniel.

"Not."

"Okay, Sir," added Carter.

"So what did you find?"

"A sarcophagus," Daniel answered.

"What?" I stood up, then promptly sat back down, because that quick move started the tunnel spinning again.

"A sarcophagus," Daniel pointed to the large coffin-like box still half buried under the rubble ahead of us. We were in an opening between piles of debris, the one behind us where we had cleared a path, another ahead of us which again fully closed off the tunnel. "I'm not sure we can get it uncovered." He pointed at some huge stones burying one end of the long device.

Oh great, a Goa'uld healing device. I looked at Daniel, remembering his addiction, hoping he wouldn't have a problem with this. He seemed okay. I was the one wondering about sneaking a few minutes in the damn thing, that is, if a sarcophagus could cure the common cold, because this cold I had was developing into a doozy. If it was a cold, I thought, shivering.

"We won't get this uncovered tonight, I think we should take a break for today, if that's okay with you, Sir," said Carter.

Sneaky move, Major, and I shot her a grateful look, because right about then the only thing I really wanted to do was curl up into a nice warm blanket and sleep for a week.

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We went back to our campsite, ate, or at least the others did. I didn't feel much like eating anything, took the pills Carter gave me, drank a lot of water, and laid down near the fire. Ten minutes after we'd all settled in, Daniel came over and added another blanket covering me.

"Wha--?

"

"I can see you shivering from all the way over there," said Daniel with a quick smile.

"Just a cold," I muttered through chattering teeth.

"Right. A cold."

---------------------------

I woke to full daylight and a bleary look at my watch showed the time as nearly 0600. "What the--?" I started to push my blankets aside, felt weak and shaky, but someone's hand was pushing me back down into the blankets.

"It's okay, Jack."

"Damn it, who let me sleep through my watch?" I groused.

"I was awake and able to take your turn, O'Neill," said Teal'c in his unruffled voice. "It did not appear that you were well enough to stand watch."

That made me mad. "I'm fine," I insisted.

"Well, you can tell us that, but we can see different," said Daniel.

"Sir, we're going back," said Carter.

"Major, since when did you start making the decisions for this team?" there was anger in my voice. I hate being ignored. Or over-ruled.

"With all due respect, Sir, you need to go back. This is more than a cold..."

"What, the flu? I've had the flu and survived."

"Sir, it could be all kinds of things, and we need to have Dr. Fraiser check you out."

"Oh for crying out loud," I muttered. "No. We are not leaving. Is that clear?"

"Jack, you've been outvoted," Daniel added.

"Oh, and since when has this unit been a democracy? This is a military unit and I am still the team leader. Unless you've mutinied while I slept," I finished peevishly.

"Sorry, Sir, no mutiny. Only common sense."

Carter handed me a mug, and I expected coffee, to be surprised with "soup?"

"Good for you when you're sic-- have a cold."

"Right." I sipped the warm stuff, and felt a tad better. "Okay, compromise. How about we start back at noon? You guys can take another look at the tunnel, I'll... ah, supervise, and we can still be back before tonight?"

Over their protests, I went with them back to the hockey rink and the tunnel, agreeing to watch while they took a final survey. Carter stopped in the hallway of the hockey rink.

"You coming, Major?" I asked.

"I wanted to take some photos of this device, Sir. It reminds me of something I've seen among Machellos machines."

"Okay, Carter, just don't touch it. At all. Got that?"

"Yes Sir. I'll just be a couple minutes, and then I'll catch up."

I left the Major and followed the others toward the back hallway where we'd been digging. As Daniel clambered up the rock pile toward the opening for the area which contained the sarcophagus, I heard him utter quietly, "uh oh."

Sick or not, my sensors immediately snapped to full alert. "Uh oh, what?" I asked suspiciously.

"It's open."

"What's open?"

"The sarcophagus," he answered very, very quietly. "It's open, and empty."

The three of us stood, staring at one another, eyes wide. "So, ah, how'd that get open?" I asked, glaring at Daniel.

"We uncovered most of it," suggested Teal'c. "Perhaps it was enough that the lid was able to be opened from the inside."

"Those things can be opened from the inside?" I asked, surprised.

"Once the occupant is sufficiently healed, the device will open," Teal'c reported. "If the lid cannot open, such as in this case where it was buried, it will remain closed. Until it is uncovered."

"And we uncovered it," Daniel murmurred.

"Oy." I added.

Suddenly, I heard something behind me, and the three of us spun to face an immense man, well over six feet tall, classical Greek features, and dressed in toga and sandals.

"Welcome, to my humble abode," said the unmistakeable harmonic voice of a Goa'uld. "I am Jason." and he laughed.

"Oh shit," I thought aloud.

"That about says it all," said Daniel.

<><><><><>

"Tau'ri," his voice dripped with contempt. "is it you I have to thank for freeing me?" He stepped closer. "How did you get here? Where are my Jaffa?" He looked at Teal'c. "You are a Jaffa. Apophis sect?"

Teal'c said nothing.

Smart, Teal'c don't reveal anything, I thought.

"So, you were sent by Apophis? To free me? That is so unlike him. Hmm." The Goa'uld looked at us again. "How did you get here?" he asked, looming before my face. "Answer me, Human. How did you get here?"

If I'd have thought about it, I wouldn't have done it. But then again, that's the story of my life, isn't it? Open my mouth first, think later. That attitdue has cost me a lot of grief over the years. But protecting my team is what I do. Maybe if I get his attention focused on me, I thought, Carter might be able to slip away. She'd been over by the far wall, in the shadows, I didn't think he'd seen her. If I could keep Jason focused on me, she should be able to get out unseen.

So Jack, you're on. Put on a show for the slimy snake. "How did we get here? The USS Enterprise, of course."

I could see he was stumped by that answer. "What is this Enterprise?"

"Federation starship, big thing, really cool; travels warp nine, fires photon torpedoes, has that fella with the pointy ears..." He looked even more puzzled. "Ah, guess you're not a fan of Star Trek?" Guess not. He backhanded me. If I hadn't been sick to start with I don't think the blow would have knocked me down, but as it was, I felt his hand device slice open my lip. Daniel moved to help me.

"Halt!" he ordered Jackson, eyes glowing, and Daniel stepped back toward Teal'c. They were behind me, pinned against the back wall of the debris filled tunnel.

I pushed myself back to my feet, wiping blood from my face, defiantly looking him in the eye.

"Tell me the truth!" he ordered.

Oooh, don't order me around you slimy snakehead, I thought, using my anger to bolster my energy. I put as much contempt into my voice as he'd had in his, more I hoped. "Nope. Can't. Won't."

He grabbed me around the throat, lifting me off the floor, shaking me, then tossed me against the wall. Oh damn. I forgot the extra-human strength those damn snakes have.

From the corner of my eye I could see Carter edging away towards the doorway. I needed to keep his attention firmly focussed on me to give her the chance to get away. Bracing myself against the wall to get back to my feet, I said, "Oh, now, Jason, can I call you Jason, or would you prefer Mr. Argonaut, or just plain Snakehead? I kind of like that one, myself."

"You Tau'ri, you will show respect for your God."

"Now, not that you'd know it or anything, having just been introduced to me, but I do show respect to *my* God. You can ask these guys," I waved a hand at Teal'c and Daniel. "They'll tell you." Out of the corner of my eye I could see Teal'c nodding in complete agreement, and Daniel, well, Daniel was just looking at me, oddly. "But you see, I've got this little problem. It's just that I can't quite picture you in His class, you being just a slimy snakehead phony imitation fake god and all. "

Jason was on his feet, eyes glowing, shouting, "Tauri, you will kneel..."

I shook my head. "You know, you snakehead guys really have a thing about this kneeling business and I've always found it to be nothing specia...."

He slapped me, knocking me off my feet. My ears rang. Man I'd thought I'd had a headache before, I had a giant sized one now, I thought, as I stubbornly staggered back to my feet again.

"You will show respect to your God, and kneel before me," Jason thundered.

"Not my God, buster," I said, refusing.

I nearly ducked that punch, but I wasn't quick enough. Already dizzy from his earlier blows, his fist hit me a glancing blow that was still powerful enough to knock me off my feet.

"Kneel!" he roared.

I staggered back to a semi-standing, quite close to fully upright position. "No."

"You will not defy me, Tau'ri." He raised his hand and a bolt of energy flew from the hand device. As the force threw me backwards, I thought "Oh shit" in that final moment before my head impacted with the wall and everything went dark.

----------------------------

"Tie him tightly," I heard the Goa'uld say as I reluctantly drifted back to painful awareness.

"Sorry, Jack," Daniel whispered as I felt my hands pulled behind me.

"If they are not tight, he will pay dearly," Jason said.

"Jack?"

I groaned. God, my head hurt. I tried to open my eyes, couldn't see much, just Teal'c standing silently, Daniel bending over me, tying my ankles. Oh great. But at least I didn't see Carter. Hopefully that meant she'd gotten away.

Jason spoke again. "Now, you, back away. By the Jaffa." Daniel retreated, a worried, apologetic look on his face.

I heard footsteps come from behind me, felt someone grab my hands and pull. Then I was being dragged by my hands over the jumble of rock on the floor. "Ummm," that hurt.

"You are awake, Tau'ri, good. So you would not kneel for me, then instead you will lie at my feet." He jabbed me with his toe. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he had seated himself on a large slab of stone, like it was a throne. "Now, you and you," he pointed to Teal'c and Daniel, "you will dig."

"Dig what?" Daniel asked, all innocence.

"You will dig, there, dig out my ship and my Jaffa."

"Your Jaffa must surely be dead by now after, what, centuries?" Daniel asked.

"They are in stasis in the chamber, which is buried there," he said, pointing to the back of the cave. "You will dig them out, and then you will dig out my ship."

"No, I don't think I'll dig anything for you," Daniel said stubbornly. Good job, Daniel, I thought.

Jason laughed. "You will dig, or he will pay," and the damn snakehead kicked me. "Dig."

"Don't," I said, and he kicked me again. "Don't do it, that's---"

Roughly, something was stuffed into my mouth, gagging me, stopping me from saying more. "Annoying, Tau'ri, that will shut you up," Jason thundered, tying the gag firmly into place.

Reluctantly, Daniel and Teal'c turned to the rubble and begin to dig. I closed my eyes. This was going to be a long day.

-------------------------------

I don't know if I dozed or passed out, not much difference I suppose, but I knew I'd been out of it for quite a while because Daniel and Teal'c had managed to move a lot of rock in the meantime and my body was so stiff I don't think I could have moved even if someone had untied me.

"Ah, it's awake," said Jason, from behind me. "Ready to work, now, Tau'ri?" he asked. "You," he indicated Daniel, "you, Tau'ri, come over here and untie your friend. He will help you. You get too little work done."

Daniel was quickly at my side, removing the gag. Gratefully, I sucked in a lungful of air, which set me to coughing. But at least I could breathe better. Daniel, meanwhile, was untying my hands and my ankles. I sat up carefully, stiff and aching, coughing, trying to rub some circulation back into my numb hands.

"He needs some water," said Daniel.

"After he works."

"He's hurt, you've injured him. He needs water if you expect him to work," Daniel insisted.

"If he is too ill to work, then it's a waste of time to be nursing him. He will work, or he will not drink or eat. None of you will."

Daniel slipped his arm under my shoulder, helped me to my feet as my numb limbs and stiff muscles began to respond. We staggered over to the pile of rubble filling the tunnel. I picked up a rock, then set it rolling down toward the floor. Daniel and Teal'c were working higher on the debris pile. I managed to move a few rocks between shivering and coughing.

I didn't stay on my feet long, a coughing fit sending me to my knees.

Daniel turned again to the Goa'uld. "Please, let him rest."

"No," Jason thundered. "Work. Dig. Now."

Still sitting on the rubble, I waved weakly at Daniel, picking up another rock and letting it roll down to the cave floor. I wondered what Carter was doing, hoped she was hurrying because we needed help.

------------------------------

I'm not sure how long we went on like that, working, or in my case, looking like I was working but accomplishing mostly nothing. Most of my energy was being taken up with the need to draw another breath.

Finally, Jason strolled over to the rock pile and said, "you are not making sufficient progress."

"We're tired. We need food, and rest," insisted Daniel. That boy gives stubborn a whole new meaning.

Jason was not impressed. "Weak and useless, you Tau'ri. Perhaps I can turn you into Jaffa and then you will be of some value to me. You appear to have strong enough bodies. Except for this one," he said, sneering at me. Again. You know, I didn't much like that Jason guy, legend or not.

"The Tau'ri need food and rest to be able to work efficiently, Lord Jason," said Teal'c softly.

"This one," and again he gave me that contemptuous look, "he will be able to work once he has eaten, and rested?"

"Yes, my Lord. He is a very good worker, Lord Jason," Teal'c answered.

I lifted an eyebrow, Teal'c did the same. Ah, more Jaffa humor. Moving rocks isn't exactly the kind of work I'm good at, but...

"You have food nearby?"

"In one of the other buildings."

Jason nodded. "You will take us there." He grabbed me by the shoulder, propelling me forward. "You, Tau'ri, you will show us where you have food and drink. And if these other two attempt to escape, we will kill you." He looked at Daniel and Teal'c. "You do understand?"

"Oh perfectly," said Daniel, sarcastically.

-----------------------------

We were marched out of the hockey rink and across to the small building. I made sure to chatter the whole way, make enough noise to be certain that we didn't take Carter by surprise. I didn't see a sign of her. Maybe that meant she'd gone back to the gate for reinforcements. Not a bad plan, considering, but it could take a while for help to arrive. In the meantime, we needed to be helping ourselves, I figured.

Once back at the hut we'd camped in, Jason shoved me to the ground at his feet and waited impatiently while Daniel dug out our water bottles and MREs.

I gulped down the water greedily. He even managed to slip me a couple of pills from Carter's pack and I swallowed them quickly. I wasn't even sure what they were, but by that time, anything would help.

Jason was not pleased with USAF chow. He tasted his meal, spit out the mouthful and tossed the rest on the ground. "You are attempting to poison me with this garbage."

"Ah no, no, that's just another little Air Force joke for you," I answered. "One of the military's real benefits, food like that."

"This you call food? No wonder you are such weaklings," the Goa'uld growled.

"It's all we have, Jason," Daniel explained. "When we travel, we carry only basic foods to sustain us."

"And no wine? No spirits? You drink water? Pah!! Pitiful, you Tau'ri. And the System Lords were worried you would advance too quickly." He laughed. "You may rest a few hours then work. Once my Jaffa are free, I won't need you pitiful humans."

---------------------------

I tried to sleep, did manage to get some rest, and the food, and even more importantly the water, helped. Maybe those pills, whatever they were, did some good too. I laid down against the wall, Daniel on one side, Teal'c on the other, covered myself with the blanket and dozed. At one point I woke when Teal'c covered me with his jacket. Daniel was sleeping against my back on the other side.

All too soon, Jason roused us and marched us back to the tunnel and set us once again to digging. Daniel was moving another rock when I noticed him pause and look at me. I was sitting just below him, on the rock pile, sliding stones toward the floor. I wasn't much help in the digging actually, but it left me looking busy enough to keep ol' Jason happy. And it was about all the activity I could manage, wretched as I felt.

Daniel caught my eye and cautiously showed me an oddly square shaped rock. I looked again. C-4, a small block of C-4. Carter must have brought it in here last night while we were asleep. Good work, Major, I thanked her silently. So, if the tunnel was rigged, and Carter had the timer, how and when could she set it off without hurting us while burying dear old Jason. Hmmm.

And just where was Carter, anyway? I wondered, between coughing spells.

Teal'c and Daniel were working part way up the rock pile, 8 or 10 feet above the floor. I was maybe five feet off the floor, while Jason was lounging back and watching us. I was trying to keep one eye on the doorway behind him, and sure enough, after a few minutes, I saw a flicker of movement. Carter.

So, Jack, how do we make a break and get to the Major?

Coughing spell. Hard, racking, deep coughs, and I wasn't faking, well, not much. Daniel slid down to me.

"Jack, you okay?

"Wonderful. Haven't coughed like this since I gave up smoking." I had to pause to cough again, and waved away Daniel's worried look. "It's not a *Major* problem," and then added in a whisper. "In the doorway. Watch for my signal and run like hell. Got it?"

The Goa'uld snapped at Daniel. "You, Tau'ri, back to work. Now. He doesn't need to be coddled. He must work. You all must work."

And then I had an idea, and turned to Jason. "These rocks, they're too big. We can't move them," I said. "Maybe you could uh, blast them? Use your ribbon thingy. Break them apart a little." Would he fall for it? Arrogant Snakeheads, always think they know everything. Think humans are stupid and weak.

He looked at us with contempt, then motioned us to stand out of the way.

The moment he raised his hand, his attention having left us, we ducked and ran. When the 'beam' from his ribbon device hit the rock pile, the tunnel exploded, rock and dust flying everywhere, the three of us already running for the exit, out through the large hockey rink chamber, and out into the street where I had to stop to catch my breath against another coughing attack.

Daniel was at my side, concern on his face. "Go!" I hissed.

"Not without you," he insisted, grabbing my arm and helping me down the street, where Teal'c was waving us into a small building. We waited. This wasn't going to work, I thought, because if that damn snakehead walked within fifty feet of the place he'd hear those coughs I couldn't stop. Damn.

"Think he got buried again?" Daniel suggested.

"We can hope," I gasped, coughing more.

Teal'c, peering cautiously around the doorway, suddenly stiffened. "Shhh. He's coming, down the street."

I tried to control my breathing, in/out, steady Jack, steady, easy. From the direction Teal'c was looking, I could follow Jason's approach. Good, good, the gould was past us. And then I took too deep of a breath and coughed.

"Go!" ordered Teal'c, pushing Daniel and me toward the back door of the little building.

And then we found Carter. Or at least, she found the Goa'uld because as Jason charged down the street after us, I heard gunfire. The snakehead staggered, stopped and dropped to his knees before he was able to activate his shield. Her weapons fire wouldn't kill him, but that would slow the bastard down, I thought with satisfaction.

We ran. Well, a couple hundred yards at least before I doubled over with a coughing spell that left me breathless.

"This isn't going to work," Daniel told Teal'c, even as he was holding my arm while I struggled for air. "We can't outrun him with Jack like this."

"Go without me," I gasped.

"No, O'Neill, we cannot leave you behind. But perhaps we can try a deception, lay a false trail that will delay him. If as he says he came here by ship, he may not be aware of the location of the Stargate. This way." Teal'c began to jog back toward our campsite. After passing a couple of buildings, he paused, looking at a path between the stone structures. "Daniel Jackson, take O'Neill that way," he pointed down the trail back toward the Stargate. "I will secure our weapons and catch up with you."

Catching my breath at last, I shrugged free of Daniel's supporting arm and started through the village. Just moments later, I heard something behind us. Damn. Had Jason found us already? "Here," I hissed at Daniel, pushing him into a concealing doorway, wishing desperately that I had a weapon, any weapon, even my knife, hell, especially my knife because that I knew could penetrate the Goa'uld's shield..

Then the figure rounded the bend of the trail, and it was Carter, carrying her MP-5. "Glad to see you guys. You okay, Sir?" she looked rather pointedly at me, and I nodded. She handed me a knife and a pistol and I hefted them gratefully, feeling less vulnerable though I knew they could do little damage to that snake. Better than nothing, I thought.

"Teal'c's just behind me. I gave him his staff weapon."

"Now that makes me feel better," I rasped, knowing we were re-armed. I dearly missed my own, MP-5 however, the one lying at the bottom of that damn mudhole, I thought as Teal'c jogged back toward us. I looked around. "So, Carter, where are they?"

"Who, Sir?"

"Our reinforcements." She gave me a blank look. I rolled my eyes. "Don't tell me you didn't go back to the gate and send for help..."

"I tried, Sir, but I couldn't get through."

"Couldn't get through? We're cut off? Stuck here with a pissed off Goa'uld looking for us and only limited weaponry?"

"Yes, Sir. The gate activated on this end, but I didn't get an answer on the GDO signal. I did get a voice signal and answer, Sir. It seems they've had a computer failure. They can receive incoming messages, even incoming personnel through the gate, but they can't dial out until the system is restored."

"And that will be?"

Carter looked at her watch. "Well, another 12 hours, Sir. At least. Maybe more."

"Maybe more?"

"Most likely, more, Sir," Carter answered.

"So now what?" Daniel looked at me.

I hefted my weapon. "Maybe we should go snake hunting."

Daniel shook his head. "You need to get to a doctor, Jack. We can send you back."

I leaned casually back against the wall of the building, at least I hoped it looked casual, and not like I needed support to stand up. "Well, there's two problems with that. First, I'm not leaving you guys behind. Second, and most important, we can't leave that damn snake with access to the gate." I paused to catch my breath. "There's already too many of his kind loose in the universe. So even if we outrun him to the gate, or at least divert him long enough for us to use the gate, he might follow...

"He'd hit the iris, Sir."

"And what if he didn't follow us back to Earth, Carter? He could go somewhere else, anywhere else. He probably would, in fact, pick somewhere else. Who knows where he might have more Jaffa or weapons stashed? We'd just be setting him free to terrorize some other innocent people out there, hmm? I don't want to be responsible for that, do you? I've turned one monster loose on the universe, I don't intend to be responsible for it happening again." I said, remembering Linnea/Kira. My statement was greeted with silent, grim faces. "Okay. Now that that's settled, so maybe the solution is a little hide and seek?"

"What does a children's game have to do with hunting?" Teal'c questioned.

"Well, it means being devious, Teal'c. Making ourselves hard to find, or at least some of us, while the rest of us...

"...take you back to the gate." Daniel, being single minded again.

"No, while the rest of us engage in a little guerilla warfare."

Teal'c turned to me with one of those 'now what crazy illogical human activity is he talking about' looks. "Why would one wish to emulate an exceptionally large African primate?"

I would have laughed if I'd had the breath. "Not gor-illa," I said, emphasizing the first syllable. "Guer-illa warfare, as in sneak attacks. On Jason. His sarcophagus. His ship. His Jaffa. Anything he might find useful, we make sure he can't use."

"Ah, I see," he said, and I knew he didn't, but he'd figure it out. Teal'c is pretty good at that, you know.

"Jack, that doesn't change the fact that you're sick and you're hurt..."

"I've got a cold, and a couple of little bumps..."

"You obviously haven't looked at the bruises on your face, the cut on your cheek, the ribbon burn on your forehead or that egg-sized lump on the back of your head," he snapped back at me.

I glared back at him. "Minor." I insisted stubbornly.

"Not minor," he reiterated. "Especially not minor when combined with pneumonia."

"Not pneumonia. Just a cold."

"Yeah, right."

"Colonel, Daniel, if you two could stop arguing, I think we need to move, Sir, before Jason finds us right here."

"Good idea," I said, heading into the building. "So, we need some diversions and maybe a trap, something that will slow him down and throw him off our trail so we can reach the gate and leave him in the dark. Carter, Teal'c, you two circle around that way. Wreck a little havoc on anything that looks like it would be of use to Jason. We'll watch where he is."

---------------------------

It really had been a good plan, to this day I'm convinced it was, except for that little cold I had, because about two minutes after I'd walked into that building and less than halfway up the stairs that led to the balcony overlooking the street, I suddenly discovered I couldn't breathe. I doubled over, sinking to my hands and knees on the steps, gasping for air that I couldn't seem to pull into my lungs.

Daniel was holding my shoulders as I coughed and tried desperately to suck in enough oxygen to keep my body functioning. "Damn it, Jack, this is nuts. You can't be doing this."

"In... a minute," I coughed. "I'll ...be... okay."

"You aren't going to be okay in a minute. We have to get you home. This isn't just some common cold."

By then, having regained something resembling sufficient air into my oxygen starved lungs, I'd managed to sit down on the steps, head hanging, hands resting on knees. "Okay, so you go up there, see if you can see Jason," I said, pausing between each words to draw in a breath. "I'll stand guard here."

Daniel shook his head. "Right, Stand guard." said it like he didn't believe me. Guess I still need to work on teaching that civilian to have a little more respect for the military in general and me in particular. After making sure I had a good drink from my canteen, and I'd swallowed a couple more of those pills Carter had brought from our campsite, Daniel headed up the stairs and left me alone to concentrate on the hard work of breathing.

I wouldn't admit it to him, or anyone else, but right about then a tiny bit of doubt was creeping into my brain: worry about the way my chest hurt, at how I couldn't draw a decent breath, like someone was stuffing my lungs with cotton, blocking the air. But I'd be damned if I was going to let one more killer snake loose in the universe. 'So buck up, O'Neill,' I ordered myself.

About that time, Daniel came back down the stairs. "I can see Jason. He's over by a building, near the hockey rink, using his ribbon device, like he's trying to knock down the walls of the building."

"What's in the building?"

"Don't know. But I have the bad feeling it might be someone he really wants..."

"Then obviously we don't want him to have it, do we?"

Daniel stood a moment, thinking, then his eyes snapped wide open. "Jack, his ship, the Argos. He said his Jaffa were in the chamber in the cave, but after that he wanted us to help him dig out his ship. Maybe his ship is in that building."

"That building isn't big enough to hide a Goa'uld vessel."

"Maybe part of it is underground, like the tunnel off the hockey-rink chamber. That building didn't look that big from the outside, either."

I grabbed my radio. "Carter, Teal'c" I said softly.

"Yes, Sir?" Carter answered.

"Jason is uncovering something in a building next to the hockey rink. Daniel thinks it might be his ship."

"Yes, Sir. We'll head that way, Colonel."

"Actually, wait on that, Carter. I think our first objective needs to be preventing him from getting any help. Like his Jaffa. Do we have anything left to blow that cave again, bury the Jaffa for good?"

"Sir, we've never seen Goa'uld stasis equipment. It might prove invaluable."

"Nothing is valuable when you're dead, Carter." I hadn't meant to snap, but I do tend to get a little short tempered when I'm not feeling my best.

"Ah, yes, Sir."

"We don't have time for technology retrieval this trip, Carter. Maybe later. Let's just make sure of this guy before we play explorers, okay?"

I could hear her disappointment. "Yes, Sir, I understand. I've got some C-4 left. If I place it right, I should be able to drop the roof in on that cave so he can't get close to his men."

"Good. We'll find a high spot to watch your back. Be careful, Major."

"Always, Sir."

I turned off the radio, picked up my weapon and climbed to my feet. "Come on."

Daniel looked at me. "And where are we going?"

"We're going to get closer, find some high ground to cover Carter and Teal'c while we make sure he doesn't get his men free."

We left the building, working our way back towards the hockey rink. Carter radioed that she and Teal'c were ready to go in, so, by taking my time, I managed to get up to a balcony like projection of a building down the 'street' between the hockey rink and Jason's ship. I sent Daniel to a building across the street. "Carter, I'm up above the street. I can see Jason working at that other building. You and Teal'c set those charges and let's make sure his Jaffa are buried for good, okay?"

"Yes, Sir," she answered. Soon I saw the Major and SG-1's Jaffa entered the building. They'd need only a few minutes.

But fate just wasn't on our side. Just moments after they'd entered, I saw Jason coming down the street. "Damn," I whispered. He was coming up the street, striding along purposefully, warily. If his intention was to enter the hockey rink, Carter and Teal'c would be trapped. I toggled the switch on my radio, and got no answer, just a burst of static that covered what sounded like Carter trying to answer. Far enough into that building, the radio signals were probably being blocked.

I had to do something. It looked like Jason was heading for the building. Hoping the others could hear me, even if I couldn't hear them, I whispered, "Carter, Teal'c finish up. Blow that hallway. I'll distract Jason."

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I ran, well, okay, so I was going down the stairs and actually could run, sort of, emerging into the street, breathless, seeing Jason's back disappear into the big building. "Hey," I croaked at Jason. "Hey! You! Snakehead. Kree!" He spun toward me. Knowing it was useless, but needing to divert his attention, I fired my 9mm, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off his shield. Jason smiled, well, actually, it was more a smirk, and raised his arm toward me, and I could see the hand device begin to glow. I ducked right, moving as quickly as I could with the limited amount of air my lungs were drawing.

He was following me now, muttering curses.

I'd probably have made my escape if I hadn't made a bad choice. We'd only explored limited areas of the city, and frankly one alley looked like another, after all, so how was I to know this alley dead-ended into some sort of courtyard?

"Damn!" I spun, gasping for air, diving toward a doorway, but too late, Jason was there, his oversized hand grabbing hold of the back of my vest. "Tau'ri scum! You will pay for attempting to harm me," he vowed, shaking me like a rag doll. Then, his hand wrapped firmly in my collar, he dragged me back out into the street.

Daniel, Carter and Teal'c stood there, weapons raised.

Jason laughed, and shook me again. Damn, that made my head hurt. Couldn't breathe so well, either, not with him shaking me like that.

"Your puny Tau'ri weapons cannot harm me. But I can harm him," another shake, rattling my teeth, and all the rest of me, too.

My team stood grimfaced, weapons raised.

Jason, typical snooty Goa'uld, laughed. "Put down your weapons, or I'll damage him permanently."

"Don't do it!" I ordered my team, wondering why the damn C-4 hadn't gone off. Hadn't Carter and Teal'c finished the job before coming after me? I glared at them, needing to know. Carter's eyes shifted from her stare at Jason, flickering down toward her watch.

"No," said Carter to Jason, all the while looking straight at me, blinking like she had something in her eye. Like she was trying to send me a message. Blink blink blink blink blink. Five. Five what? Five hours? Five minutes? Five seconds?

"Put...down...your...weapons...or...I...shall...kill...him." Jason shook me again, and then, suddenly, everything shook. With a roar, the C-4 went off, the roof of the hockey rink buckled, a cloud of dust drifted up into the clear sky, and the rumble of falling debris rang loudly through the village.

The shock wave knocked us all down. I shook my head to clear it, and scrambled away from Jason on all fours, heading after my team, but I wasn't fast enough. Despite the fact that he'd been the only one of us taken by surprise, the snake recovered quickly. I suppose his shield had protected him from the worst effects of the blast. The big Goa'uld was quickly on his feet and his hand darted out and snared my left foot, jerking me off my knees. I hit the ground with a thunk that knocked what little air I had in my lungs right back out of my lungs, and he pulled me backwards across the rough stone of the streets as I gasped to breathe.

Jason kept pulling, stepping backwards, towing me into one of the deserted buildings. Near the door there was a tall vine with small leaves growing up the wall, and he yanked the plant out of the ground. He took the tough vine and wrapped one end around my neck in a loose noose. I didn't move quickly enough for him, and he yanked on the 'leash,' showing me that it would tighten. I dug fingers under the coarse vine to pull it away from my throat, trying give myself enough air so I wouldn't pass out.

Shit.

For a moment we stood there, glaring at each other.

"Your people are far more trouble than any of you have ever been worth, impudent, ungrateful creatures," he jerked on the vine again, just on general principles I suppose. Once again the blackness swirled on the edges of my vision before I was able to loosen the noose enough to get adequate air. "You will pay for blowing up my Jaffa, and pay dearly." He stepped closer, placing his hands around my throat, and shook me again. The headache that had been lurking in the back of my skull was now pounding through the whole of my brain, between the shaking, the shockwave, his shouting and the all too frequent lack of adequate oxygen. "You, pitiful Tau'ri, now, you will show me the way to the Stargate."

"No."

He shook me again. "Take me to the gate."

I glared back. Have I explained how much I hate the snakes? "No."

Another shake. "Take me to the gate," he shouted.

"What part of no don't you understand, eh?"

He shook me again and that time I swear I could feel my brain sloshing around inside my skull.

"Take...me...to...the...gate," he roared.

"Bite me."

Wrong thing to say. He didn't bite me, he hit me, hard, a backhanded blow that knocked me clean across the room. My aching head impacted the wall with a thud that wasn't hard enough to knock me out but was plenty sufficient to start the room spinning. I closed my eyes, willing things to stop wavering around in dizzying circles, and eventually it worked.

Finally, after long moments, I focused my eyes, staring across the room at Jason, well, at the two Jasons who now stood there. Two? Shit. Closed my eyes, opened one experimentally, saw just one Jason. Oh good. Concussion. Just what I needed.

The one Jason stalked across the room, grabbing my vest to haul me to my feet. "Now, Tau'ri, take me to the gate."

Suddenly, I wanted to laugh. Take him to the gate? Oh, yeah, right, I'd take him to the gate, all right. Ol' Jason wants to take a little trip, I'll send him on a trip, one he'll never forget. Yeah, sure you betcha, snake boy.

He raised his hand to hit me again, and I ducked away. "Okay, okay. I'll take you. Just don't hit me again," I mumbled.

Jason pulled the fancy little jeweled knife from the belt on his robes, and cut a short end off that vine he was using like a leash on me. Stepping behind me, he grabbed my hands and yanked them roughly behind my back, binding them quickly. I didn't fight him. I had to act like the defeated captive, someone who'd capitulated and was willing to take him to the Stargate, and that meant playing the weak, battered and exhausted Tau'ri to the hilt. Of course, to be honest, in the state I was in, it didn't require that much of an acting job.

Now having his captive firmly in hand, Jason turned away from the street. Finding a back doorway out of the building, he dragged me along behind him into the alley. "Where?" he demanded.

I looked up and down the street, as if studying it, then pointed with my chin. "That way."

"Go." He pushed me out into the street, shoving me along at what amounted to a steady jog.

I couldn't keep it up long because moving that fast required way more air than my lungs were delivering to my body. Every step made my head ache like it was going to explode more violently than that C-4 had back at the hockey rink. I slowed to a walk every few steps, but Jason started impatiently pushing me ahead of him.

At the edge of the village, I turned down the trail, the one we'd hiked up on, how many days ago? Lifetimes, it seemed. It was hard walking, watching where I put my feet when I kept seeing two pairs of Air Force issue boots instead of one. Twice I fell, not sure if it was the dizziness in my head or the pain in my chest that drove me to my knees. The third time, I didn't get up, I just knelt there, genuinely exhausted.

"Get up!" He stepped past me, yanking on the vine, tightening the knot around my throat.

"Need rest... minute... can't breathe," I rasped between coughs.

Guess patience is not a Goa'uld virtue, thank God. "Worthless Tau'ri. Move or die." Jason stepped forward, pulling on the cord, forcing me to my feet if I didn't want to choke, the snake leading now. We came around a corner on the trail, past the big stone, to a place I remembered.

For a moment, I thought he was going to try to jump over it to keep his shoes mud-free, but he didn't. Jason stepped right into the 'puddle.' I watched in gleeful fascination as his foot disappeared, then his ankle, his whole leg, and then the whole damned Goa'uld dropped down into the mudpit with a snarl of surprise and rage.

My shout of triumph was cut short when the vine-rope suddenly snapped taut and inexorably began pulling me toward the pit. Crap! Jason was holding on to the rope, anchoring himself on me!

I dug my heels in, trying to stop my skid toward the pit, at the same time realizing that if I saved myself I'd probably give him the means to save himself too. I wasn't going to have to worry about making a decision, though, because I was quickly losing the battle, my feet slipping closer and closer to the rim of the mudhole and the knot around my throat tightening steadily. With my hands tied behind me, I couldn't do anything to help myself. Frantically I tried to jam my bootheels into the soil, but it was too soft and they kept slipping. Meanwhile, Jason's struggles, transmitted to me through the jerking of the vine, drew me inexorably closer and closer to the edge of the mudhole. At the same time, with the Goa'uld's weight now suspended off my 'leash,' I was slowly choking as the noose drew tighter and tighter, cutting off my air. The blackness was closing in around me and I couldn't draw the oxygen needed to sustain consciousness.

Whoever said asphyxiation was an easy way to die has never tried it. My chest hurt like a thousand pound weight was crushing it and my head was pounding like a man with a jackhammer was desperately working to dig his way out. Everything was getting dim and I was beginning to feel odd, shakey, numb...

And then, out of nowhere, hands grabbed me, and a knife flashed across in front of my chest, cutting the vine. The tension on the line suddenly released, throwing me backwards onto the ground but the noose stayed tight, and I could feel myself starting to fade out.

There was a touch of cold metal against my neck, something poking against my throat, and the constriction was gone. A trickle of air got through to my burning lungs. The bindings on my hands came free, too, and my fingers flew reflexively to my throat as I drew in a deep gulping breath of air, sweet, sweet air, wheezing, coughing, choking, rolling over onto my stomach, my chest heaving. My clogged lungs still weren't processing much oxygen, but the blackness that had been crowding my vision was slowly giving way. Damn, coughing hurt, and my fingers on my throat were slick with blood.

"Easy, Sir, easy," Carter soothed.

"Jesus, Carter, what did you do?" I asked when I finally had enough air to speak. "Planning to guillotine me?"

"Sorry, Sir, I didn't have the time to be delicate," she said, and I have to say she really did look contrite. Cutting her CO's throat probably wouldn't look too good on her service record, come to think of it. "It's only a scratch, Sir. The rope cut some, too."

I coughed again. "Scratch, right," I sighed, falling back to lie flat on the ground while my body made up its own mind if it was going to keep functioning for a few minutes more or just give it up right then and there. Eventually, I and it agreed we'd live.

"Are you well, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"Will be," I croaked, still coughing and aching, but glad to be alive. "Eventually." I coughed again. "I think." Gratefully, I took the canteen Daniel handed me, and drank again and again.

"Sir, can you move? We should really try to get to the gate before Jason comes up for air," Carter pointed at the mudpit.

I nodded. Teal'c walked up, held out a hand for me to grasp, and pulled me to my feet. He kept a steadying hand on my shoulder as we followed Daniel down the trail, Carter on our six, keeping watch for any sign of a mudcovered hostile Goa'uld.

Jason was a no-show, thank God.

We made it back to the gate, somehow. I don't remember a lot of that walk, I found out later Teal'c ended up carrying me about half the way. I came to back at the gate, sitting on the steps, watching as Daniel dialed us home and Carter tapped in her GDO code.

"Ready, Sir?"

With a hand from Daniel, I climbed to my feet, swaying, and stared slowly for the gate. After about six steps, I stopped, an ugly thought crossing my mind. "Wait. What about Jason?"

"If he is able to extricate himself from the pit, he will be alone here," said Teal'c. "Major Carter and I destroyed his Jaffa and disabled his ship. I blasted the crystals in the engine room with my staff weapon, and the control panels as well. I do not believe he will be able to repair it."

"Good." I took another step toward the Stargate, and then stopped, plagued by another bad thought. "But what if he 'gates out?"

Carter smiled. "I had one block of C-4 left, Sir. I wrapped it around the crystals in the DHD, and set the timer. Once we're through, it will destroy the DHD. He'll be trapped here."

"Sure?"

"Guaranteed, Sir."

I sighed. "Good work, kids. Now let's go home."

........................................................................................................................................................................................

Home turned out to be a week's stay in the infirmary.

I had staggered back through the gate and managed to keep on my feet long enough to greet the General and say "howdy" to Doc. I knew I was in trouble the minute I saw her face. She gets that look, you know, the one she gets right before she calls in the medics and the gurney and orders all those medical tests and IVs and pills and such.

Doc said my face was as pale as her white coat when my feet hit the ramp, complimented nicely by the red rings on my throat, and the bruises all over my face. Nice combination, I guess-- red, white, and black and blue. She also took great exception to the nasty noises my lungs were making, and the fact that I could see three of her worried her just a bit. Well, I think I worried her *more* than a bit when I just plain lost it and suddenly found myself, somehow, flat on my back on the gateroom floor. Next thing I knew, Doc and her staff were carrying me into the infirmary and things there were pretty frantic, so I just closed my eyes and let them do their jobs.

Diagnosis: concussion, pneumonia, bruises, abrasions and exhaustion.

Nice combination. Thankfully nothing lethal, and nothing that won't heal.

I slept for about four days straight, the kind of thing you do when your body is worn out and Doc is feeding you all kinds of drugs that knock you out. By then, my head had pretty much quit throbbing, my lungs were once again providing adequate oxygen, the aches and pains were subsiding nicely, and I was slept out. As you might guess, right about then I started to get a little restless. So Daniel came to visit, and brought me a book to read. The boy has an odd sense of humor, I'll give him that. I picked up the book, and chuckled.

Haven't decided if I'm going to read it yet. Daniel says it's great for a good laugh.

'Jason, the Argonauts, and the Search for the Golden Fleece'

I don't know if I'm ready for it.

It's the kind of book that may just give me nightmares.

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