Disclaimer Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Sam slowly opened her eyes, staring for a few seconds as she struggled to understand just what she was seeing.

A flat gray expanse spread out in front of her and she realized she was lying on the floor. She pushed herself up, closing here eyes against the pounding in her head. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and frowned when the room looked familiar.

"What the hell?" she breathed, recognizing the confines of an SGC holding cell. She got to her feet and staggered towards the door, dizziness forcing her to use the wall to keep from falling.

She tried the door and it opened into the hallway. She looked, surprised to find the corridor empty. Her instincts drove her towards the gateroom and she made her way towards the elevator.

Paranoia clawed at her brain and she wondered if it was some sort of trap. This wasn't right. Something…it just wasn't right.

The elevator door opened and Sam stopped, suddenly aware that she was vulnerable in there. She turned from the elevator and stumbled towards the stairs. The walls shifted drunkenly and she closed her eyes for a second, her fingers splayed against the wall to steady herself.

She opened her eyes and pushed forward, slipping into the stairwell. She fumbled down the stairs, grateful that she didn't need to go up. There was no way in hell she'd make it.
She nearly slid down the twelve flights of stairs, stopping to sit down a couple of times when she felt like she was going to pass out.

She finally reached the bottom and paused for a moment at the door, taking a couple of deep breaths to try and clear her head. She slowly opened the door, frowning when the corridor was just as empty as the one on level sixteen.

"Where in the hell is everyone?" she asked, her low voice echoing off the cement walls. She made her way towards the conference room, her slow footsteps the only sound she heard. She slipped into the conference room, sighing in relief when she saw that the iris was still closed. Oddly, she couldn't quite pin down just why that was so important, but knew that it was. A quick glance confirmed that General Hammond's office was empty and she looked towards the stairs. Instinct led her towards the control room, which she also found empty, lights and screens blinking their messages to no one.

She stepped towards the main computer and stopped, something inside wouldn't let her take another step, touch a keyboard.

Panic welled up in her chest and her head pounded so fiercely that she swore it felt like it was pulsing on her shoulders. Wrong. It was wrong. This was bad. So bad.

Orange light.

Anger.

Betrayal.

Fear.

Flashes of memory assailed her brain and she raised her hands to cradle her pounding head.

"Carter? What the hell is going on?"

Fear coursed through her chest and her eyes flew open. Her CO stood there, openly concerned, which did nothing to calm the terror she felt.

"Carter?" He frowned and stepped towards her. "What's wrong?"

Words failed her as the pounding in her brain finally drove her over the edge and she slipped to the floor, mercifully unconscious.

::::::::::

Jack stared for half a second before his training overrode his shock and he reached out, slamming his palm onto the alarm before hurrying across the room. Dozens of questions raced through his brain. Where was everyone? The control room was never, NEVER left unattended.  And what the hell was going on with his captain? She certainly wasn't the fainting type, not to mention that she'd looked scared to death.

Jack knelt beside her, reaching out to check her pulse. The faint, regular beat under his fingertips reassured him, but not by much. She looked like she was on the wrong side of a week long forced march. Her uniform was rumpled and dirty. Her skin was pale and her hair looked greasy and unkempt.

Jack heard footsteps pounding down the hall and he turned to see two SF's running into the room, their weapons drawn. "Sir?"

"I don't know," Jack said. "Secure that station." He gestured towards the main computer. "No one uses the gate until we find out what's going on here."

One of the SF's sat at the station and moved the mouse to activate the computer. "Sir, this computer is locked out," he said. Jack nodded and gestured towards the other one.  "Same here," the man said after trying the second computer.

Jack left Carter's side and bent over the station, typing in his login. The computer blinked back a refusal and Jack frowned, typing it in again, this time slower. Again it was rejected. He moved to the other station and tried again, still getting the same result.

"You go find Walter, get his ass down here," he ordered one of the SF's. "And you get down to the infirmary and find out where the hell medical is."

"Yes, sir," the men answered, hurrying off to carry out Jack's order. Confident that the gate was secure, Jack turned his attention back to Carter. She was still unconscious and that concerned him. "Come on, Carter, nap time is over," he said, tapping her face gently. She remained stubbornly unconscious. After what felt like an eternity, Jack again heard people coming. The SF returned, two medical techs trailing at his heels.

"Sir, what happened?" one of them asked as Jack stepped back to allow them to work.

"She just passed out," Jack said as they checked her vitals.

"We need to get her to the infirmary, sir."

"Go," Jack said.

The two techs carried Carter from the room just as General Hammond walked into the room, Walter at his side. "Sir," Jack said.

"Colonel." The general paused. "I seem to be at a loss, Colonel," he confessed.

"That makes two of us," Jack said. "Three," he corrected at Walter's frown. Jack gestured at the computers. "Computer's locked out," he said. Walter sat down and began to type. "Gate's secure but…honestly, General, I have no idea what's going on."

"Pull up the logs, Sargent," Hammond ordered.

"Umm, I can't sir," Walter said, turning to look at him. He held his hands up helplessly. "I can't get in."

"What do you mean you can't get in?" Hammond asked.

"Sir, I've tried every password I know, including a few I shouldn't probably know, none of them work."

"What the Sam Hill is going on here?"

He turned to O'Neill. "Get some SF's. I want a level by level search," Hammond ordered.

"Sir."

Jack left the room, rounding up able bodied men as he went. By the time he reached the armory, he had half a dozen SF's and they made short work of the search, finding nothing more threatening than dozens of befuddled men.

"What?" Jack asked, escorting a confused scientist out of one of one of the labs to find two of the SF's whispering to each other.

"Sorry, sir it's just…"

"Spit it out, airman," Jack said.

"There ain't no ladies," another SF said. "We know these labs, sir. We patrol them all the time."

"We call it the chicken coop," another piped up.

"Chicken coop?" Jack asked.

"There's one male scientist, the other four are ladies. You got the rooster but…where's the hens?"

"Rooster?" the scientist said. "I don't get it."

"Colonel O'Neill to the infirmary," he heard over the loud speaker.

Jack nodded towards the scientist. "Maybe they all had the day off," he said. "Keep going. You're in command, sergeant," he said. "Check in with the infirmary when you get there."

"Yes, sir."

Jack made his way to the elevator and it was a short ride to level 21. He got out of the car, frowning at the sight of a small group of people clustered outside the infirmary. "What's going on?" he asked one of the men out in the hall.

"The captain's freaked out. She's holding people at bay with a scalpel."

Jack pushed past the man and into the infirmary, shocked to see Carter at the back of the room, the deadly sharp medical blade in her hands.

"Carter, what the hell are you doing?" Jack asked, stepping towards her.

"Stay away from me!" she shouted.

"Captain, why don't you put down the knife and we can talk," Jack said, trying to keep his voice calm.

"I've had enough of your 'talking'" she said. "Where is she?"

Jack frowned and glanced around. "Apparently not here. Look, Carter, I have no idea what's going on right now. Maybe, if you put down that knife, we can have a chat and figure it out."

"NO! You're not going to trick me. I'm not telling you anything."

"I'm not trying to trick you," he said, concerned at the near manic madness in her eyes.

"Liar! You're just doing what she tells you to do." Her eyes darted past him, searching for someone. "What? Is she waiting out in the hall?"

"Did you hit your head?" Jack asked. "There is no she."

"DON'T LIE!" she yelled, using her left hand to sweep some instruments off a cart towards him. "I'm not telling you anything. You and that bitch can go to hell!"

Jack watched her eyes drift down, settling on the scalpel and a cold feeling knotted in his gut. He'd seen that level of desperation before, and it rarely ended well.

"That's ENOUGH, Captain!" he yelled, startling her. "I ORDER you to put that knife down."

She was startled for a second and looked at him before shaking her head. "No," she said softly. "You can tell Hathor that she's leaving this base over my dead body."

"Hathor? There is no snakehead on this base," Jack said. She shook her head in denial. "Carter, if there was a goa'uld on this base, I'd know about it," Jack said.

"Apparently not."

Jack turned to see a very disheveled Doctor Frasier walk into the room. Her normally neat and proper dress replaced by a very wrinkled set of BDU's. Her hair was tangled and looked like it hadn't been washed in a week. Trailing behind her were the nurses, also looking rumpled and dirty. Finally two SF's and Teal'c brought up the rear.

"We found them locked up on level 16," the SF reported.

"Doc?"

"Hathor's here," she said. "She took over this base two weeks ago." She raked him up and down with a disgusted glare. "Largely because all of you followed her like lovesick puppies."

Jack frowned, the woman's unusual bluntness doing more to confirm her story than anything else. "Teal'c?"

"Doctor Frasier's recounting of events is accurate," he said. "This facility has indeed been infiltrated by a goa'uld. And her efforts were assisted by nearly every member of this command, including you."

"Why not you?" Jack asked.

"My symbiote provided me protection from her allure."

"She used pheromones, or something like it," Frasier said. "Every single male on this base fell under her spell."

"They still are," Sam said. "She's still here and they're still doing what she wants them to do."

"Look, Carter—"

"Colonel," Frasier interrupted. "If you're…feeling better now, why don't you go and find Hathor." She looked at him pointedly, her eyes telling him that she needed him to just go.  "The captain and I have a little catching up to do."

Jack hesitated a second, then nodded. "Fine. Teal'c, why don't you stay here? Presuming that's okay with you, doc."

:::::::::

Janet waited until he was gone before she turned to Sam. "You can put that down now," she said, hoping that she hadn't made a massive mistake by shooing Colonel O'Neill out of the room.

She could see the frantic desperation on the other woman's face and she knew that a lot of things had happened during the last week, things she just hadn't had time – or the patience - to go into.

Sam shook her head. "Hathor…"

"Is not coming in here," Janet said. She turned to the two SF's lingering by the door. "You two, hand your weapons over to these women and then you can go."

"Ma'am?"

"Sergeant, we've spent the past two weeks watching anything with a penis screw us over to cater to a goa'uld. Our trust level is a bit low at the moment. Hand over your weapons, you can go and get more, and we're going to turn this into a male free zone for a bit."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, handing his weapon over as his partner did the same. They both retreated, cautiously backing out of the room.

"Lock the door," Janet ordered before she turned back to Sam. "See, she's not getting in here," she said. "Now, give me that scalpel before you hurt yourself."

Sam stared for a second before she slumped a bit, laying the scalped down on the bed. With Sam disarmed, Janet relaxed. She hadn't seen Sam in days and was honestly relieved to see her alive, and at least mostly well.

"So," Janet said, motioning for Sam to sit down. "Talk to me."

Sam shook her head and stepped back until she was against the wall. "I…"

"Honey, I know that she was pissed at you. And I know you got the gate locked down and locked down the base. You kept her here. And I also know that she's been trying to get that information out of you for the past two weeks. And I sincerely doubt she stopped at asking politely."

"Did she use the ribbon weapon?" Teal'c asked.

"What?"

"Hathor possessed one. It is a device that wraps around the goa'uld's wrist and has a stone in the palm of their hand," he explained.

"Yes." Sam frowned. Her gaze shifted and her eyes went out of focus and Janet knew that she was remembering.

"Doctor Jackson spoke of his experiences with that. You have a headache."

"Yeah."

"And it has probably been days since you had a good meal." Janet looked at Teal'c. "I don't know about you but my guards seemed to think that food was optional."

"Through meditation, I can reduce my body's need for sustenance," he said. "But not eliminate it."

"Why don't you take Karen and see what you can find," she said. "Even if it's MRE's, I think we can all use a meal."

Teal'c nodded and Janet turned back to Sam. "I stink," she said baldly. "And you do too. I think some fresh clothes and food will do wonders to clear your head. And once you have some food in your stomach, I can get you something for that headache."

"Drugs would be good," Sam said. "Almost as good as a shower."

"I shall return as expeditiously as possible," Teal'c said.

"Come on," Janet said as he left. "Let's go make a dent in the base's hot water supply."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Jack led his team down the hall, his and their tension at a new high now that they knew there was a goa'uld on the base.

"How do you think it got here?" one of the men asked. "I mean, the gate is locked down, so is the base."

"Did you stop to think that the goa'uld is WHY the base is locked down?" another man said.

"You can ask her when we find her," Jack said, glaring at them.

A crash echoed down the corridor and the men hurried forward. They rounded a corner to see Daniel stepping backwards out of a room. Jack held up his fist and in his peripheral vision he saw the men stop, moving towards the meager cover of the walls. "Daniel?" Jack whispered. "Daniel?" he repeated when he was ignored. Finally, Daniel looked over, his eyes wide with shock. Wordlessly he pointed into the room and Jack stepped forward, hoping and trusting that Daniel wasn't directing him towards danger.

Jack peered cautiously around the door jamb and stepped into the room. It was one of the VIP suites. The room was dark, lit only by a lamp. Lying on the rumpled bed was a woman's body. She was wearing what Jack could only describe as a bikini top and short skirt. Her red hair was tangled and her open eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling. A dark smear of blood marred her pale skin and dribbled down her neck, thick and congealed.

"I think she's dead," Daniel said, standing at Jack's shoulder.

"What was your first clue?" Jack quipped, waiting for one of the men to come into the room to cover him before he approached the woman. He felt for a pulse, knowing the instant his fingers touched her chilled skin that it was useless.

"I think we found our snakehead," Jack said, looking back at the men. "Call Frasier, get her down here," he ordered. "Then keep with the sweep. Let's just make sure there are no more surprises."

"Sir."

They left and Jack moved to Daniel's side. "You okay?" He looked his friend up and down, searching for some sign that he had been injured.

Daniel nodded. "What….Jack, how'd I get down here?"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"General Hammond has called for a briefing at 1400 hours," Teal'c said, moving to stand a short distance away. Samantha Carter looked at him, setting down her bottle of juice.
He could see uncertainty in her eyes. "I have seen Hathor's corpse with my own eyes," he said. "She is indeed dead."

She nodded and took a breath. "They don't remember do they?" she asked softly.

"It does not appear so," he said. "It does seem that her influence upon them perished when she did," he said.

"Makes sense," she said, avoiding his gaze as she rearranged the remnants of her meal on the tray.

"You do not wish to speak to them," he said.

She looked up. "How do I tell them what happened when…sometimes I'm not even sure I remember it all." She rubbed her forehead as if in pain. "There's whole days that I don't remember, I think. And some days that seemed to last forever. And I don't know if I dreamed it or if it happened and…"

Teal'c stepped forward and laid his hand on her shoulder. "Doctor Frasier and I bore witness to many events. And we shall relay them."

"I just don't even want to be in the same room with them, you know," she said, looking up at him.

Teal'c nodded. "There have been many regrettable actions taken thee past two weeks. O'Neill and General Hammond will be most distressed to learn what has transpired."

She shook her head. "I don't want them distressed," she said. "I ..." She sighed. "I don't want pity, I don't want 'distress', I just want to pretend it never even happened."

:::::::::::

"Frasier's examining the body right now," Jack said, glancing up as Carter and Teal'c joined the briefing. His chiding about being late died on his lips when his eyes met Teal'c's steady glare. "We've finished searching the rest of the base, but we haven't found anything," he reported to General Hammond. "The place just has the general air of the morning after one hell of a party."

Carter and Teal'c sat down and Jack noticed that they chose seats on the far side of the table, consciously or not, placing themselves as far away from the others as they could.
Walter, Siler and Major Castleman, along with Daniel and General Hammond comprised the rest of the attendees.

Hammond nodded. "What about the Stargate?" he asked Walter.

"I'm sorry, sir. I still can't get it to work," the man said. "I've tried every hacker's trick I know. I can't get through."

"We have three teams off world," the general said. "We need to get that iris open."

"We can't, sir. Short of manually removing it and dialing by hand, I don't know of any other way."

"Siler?"

The man shrugged. "I supposed I could do it, sir," he said. "But it took a full crew of my men over a week to install the iris."

"Cut it off," Jack suggested.

Siler shook his head. "No, sir. The titanium would take days to cut through. And I'm not even sure if we have anything on the base that can do it. I'd need access to outside material."

"Which we don't have," Castleman said. He turned to Hammond. "I've got men trying to sneak out every duct and tunnel. No joy so far."

"Without the iris, Earth would be vulnerable," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, well without a base to come back to, those teams out there are pretty damn vulnerable right now," Jack said.

"I did it," Carter said, her voice barely audible.

"Carter?"

"I locked down the gate and the base," she said, looking up at him for the first time.

"Why would you do that, Captain?" Hammond asked.

"Captain Carter sought to prevent Hathor from escaping this base and further endangering Earth," Teal'c interjected.

"Then the captain can fix what she did quite easily, I would presume," Hammond said.

"Are you not curious, General Hammond, as to what has transpired these past two weeks?" Teal'c asked.

"There will be time for that after we're back up and running," he dismissed, getting to his feet. "Captain, you and Sergeant Harriman are to unlock this base and that gate, ASAP."

"General Hammond, we have a problem," Doctor Frasier said, hurrying into the room.

"What now, Doctor?"

"Hathor's not dead," she said, holding up a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Doc, I checked myself," Jack said. "I know dead."

"The host was," she confirmed, glancing at him before turning back to the general. "As per my standing orders about deceased goa'uld, I was attempting to remove the symbiote, to preserve it for further study. Sir, there wasn't one."

"Of course there was," Jack said. "Right, Daniel. You saw it."

Daniel frowned and nodded slowly. "The things she knew, the way she talked, she was a goa'uld," he said.

"Maybe you were mistaken, Doctor Jackson," Hammond said.
"No, General, I don't think--"

"Daniel Jackson was not mistaken," Teal'c said. "I witnessed Hathor using the powers of the gods, the weapons of the gods. She was indeed, goa'uld."

"Well, she's not now," Frasier said. "I have a full body MRI that shows no symbiote anywhere in that woman's body."

"Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"It is possible that the symbiote has taken a new host," Teal'c said.

"And it is equally possible that there are elements of a goa'uld's biology that we know nothing about," Hammond said.

"General?" Jack asked.

"The base stays locked down," he ordered. "But those three teams out there need to be able to come home. Carter, you and Harriman--"

"No, sir," she said, her fingers digging into the arms of the chair.

"Excuse me, Captain?"

She looked at him. "No, sir. I am not opening that iris," she said.

"Carter," Jack said, surprised at her refusal.

"No, Colonel," she interrupted. "All she's wanted for the past two weeks has been to get off this planet and I am not going to give it to her."

"Captain Carter!" Hammond said, his raised voice echoing off the walls. "I am ordering you to undo the damage you did to this facility!"

She shook her head and got to her feet. "No."

"This is insubordination, Captain!" He motioned for the two SF's to move forward.  Much to Jack's surprise, Teal'c moved to intercept them, placing himself between Carter and the guards.

"I will not allow you to harm Captain Carter further," Teal'c said.

"Further? Teal'c, they haven't even touched her," Jack said. "Carter--"

"No," she said. "Colonel, I won't do it. She is here, she is on this base and if she leaves it will be over my dead body."

"Sirs." Frasier hurried forward. "With respect, I think there's a lot that's happened that you don't know about."

"I don't care what's happened," Hammond said. "What I care about is that one of my officers has not only commandeered this facility, she's willfully and maliciously keeping other members of this command from returning home."

"General," Jack protested. "Don't you think--"

"Silence Colonel!"

"ENOUGH!" Teal'c roared.

"Lock me up," Carter said her voice scarily calm. "Court Martial me. I don't care. I am not going to unlock that gate and she is not getting off this base."

Jack saw Hammond's eyes narrow as his face flushed red. "Doc, I don't know what the hell kinda drugs you've been giving my people, but I do not appreciate you letting them be on duty when they're obviously not fit," he said quickly, moving so that he could look her in the eyes. He saw a protest bubble up and then she stopped it, frowning slightly.

"My apologies, sir," she said slowly.

"Colonel?"

"General, a couple of hours ago, Carter went and passed out on me. Something must be wrong, and it must be something Frasier didn't catch, or she wouldn't be here because obviously, Carter shouldn't be." He interjected as much anger as he dared into his voice, hoping that it would allow Hammond to back down. It was sloppy, but it was the only way Jack could think of to defuse the situation.

"General, sir," Castleman stepped forward. "There's a quick way to settle this. The doc can just give everyone an MRI. We'll confine everyone to one part of the base, once they're clear they don't have contact with anyone else until that person is cleared. If we screen everyone we'll either find the goa'uld, or we'll prove to Captain Carter that Hathor is gone and she can fix the computers."

"Makes sense to me," Daniel said.

Hammond looked at them in turn, staring each one down until he sighed. "Do it," he ordered. "Captain Carter. Once this matter is settled, you WILL relinquish your control of this facility or you WILL face grievous consequences."

::::::::::::::::::::::::

Janet ushered her group into the infirmary, ushering them like a mother goose with her chicks.

"I don't think I've ever seen the old man that pissed," Castleman said.

"Generals tend to get grumpy when you defy them," Jack said, stopping at the door. He turned to Castleman. "Frasier's got her people in here. You round up the rest while she works out the logistics of the MRIs."

"Yes, sir. If I can suggest, we should have a witness for every scan," he said. "Can you imagine the chaos if she managed to rig them? If every group is a group of three, then no one is ever alone with her and shouldn't be able to hop hosts again."

"Good idea. We'll work it out." Castleman left and Jack turned back to Janet. While he had been talking they had spread out. The other female personnel in the room were clustered together while Daniel stood off on his own. Carter and Teal'c were the furthest back and Frasier stood in the center of the room, placing herself directly in his path.
"Something on your mind, Doc?"

"I wonder if I should be the person asking that question."

"His head was going to explode," Jack said. "I thought we needed to break it up before we all ended up in the brig," he explained.

Janet sighed. "I suppose you're right."

"We're going to need MRIs on everyone," he said. "And I mean EVERYONE."

"That could take days, sir."

"I know. But if you're telling me there's a goa'uld here, we have to do it."

"Yes, sir." She moved to follow his command, stopping when he laid his hand on her arm. "Take someone with you. Take two someones. That way, no matter who the goa'uld is, you're never alone with her." She nodded and motioned for two of her nurses to follow her.

Jack stood in the center of the infirmary for a moment, contemplating his next move. His emotions pulled him towards Carter or Daniel, both of whom seemed very much effected by something. But Daniel seemed in shock and Carter was almost belligerent in her attitude.

His need for answers overrode his emotions and Jack motioned for Teal'c to join him. "What happened?" he asked.

"How much do you remember?"

Jack frowned and thought. "Crazy woman showing up at the front gate. We brought her down. Daniel tried to talk to her." Jack's hand drifted to his stomach, a faint memory – or was it a dream – tugged at his brain. "Things got kinda foggy after that."

"The goa'uld Hathor exerted her influence upon you and the other males of this facility. You did her bidding with little to no argument," he said.

"Bidding?"

"Hathor attempted to create a seat of power."

"A nest," Daniel interjected.

"What?"

He frowned for a second. "She told me. She's a queen, like a bee."

"A bee?"

"O'Neill, have you not wondered where goa'uld larvae come from?"

"Tanks in temples," Jack said. "When Daniel's not going all Annie Oakley on them."

"A goa'uld queen spawns many larvae. They mature for a short time in a tank until they are ready to be placed in a Jaffa's womb," he explained.

"So…wait, what about Shaur'ri," Jack asked, belatedly glancing over at Daniel.

"She is merely Apophis queen, not a queen goa'uld. Very few goa'uld possess the ability to spawn. A queen is very rare and the goa'uld that controls one holds much power."

"Endless supply of soldiers," Jack said.

"Indeed. This is one reason that Captain Carter could not permit Hathor to leave the planet."

Pain. Shock. A burning in his gut. Sinuous arms, holding him tight.

'My first new Jaffa.'

Jack shook his head. "Teal'c, what did she do to me?"

"Hathor attempted to turn you into a Jaffa."

"What? How?"

"She possessed a device called the Menat. If one is not born a Jaffa and able to carry a primta, it creates the incubation pouch," Teal'c explained.

"Are you telling me that we could have a base full of homemade Jaffa?" Jack asked.

"I am not. I have seen no evidence of this," Teal'c said.

"I broke it," Carter said, getting up from the chair she was sitting in.

"Sam?" Daniel asked.

"I have seen the Goa'uld chamber do many miracles," Teal'c said, manipulating the controls to close the sarcophagus. Sam looked down, hoping that Teal'c was right and that the fancy gold box possessed enough 'magic' to heal her CO.

Just as the golden wings of the box clunked closed, she heard the heavy metal blast door of the gateroom slide open. She ducked for cover, throwing herself behind the sarcophagus.

"FREEZE!" she heard a voice shout. The sound was immediately followed by the clatter of Teal'c and Janet dropping their weapons. Alarmed, Sam popped up over the top of the sarcophagus, firing off several shots. She was gratified to see one of them strike Hathor in the chest. The goa'uld roared in pain as something on her stomach sparked and smoked.

"STOP HER!" Hathor screamed.

Four more airmen poured into the room and towards Sam. Realizing that she could never take them all on, she turned and ran, slamming her hand down on the door controls as she dashed past it.

She couldn't stop this. There were too many of them and just one of her. It was impossible. Damage control. If she couldn't stop the invasion, she would contain it. Slow it down and hope that someone else would be able to stop Hathor before she took over Earth.

"I shot her and broke it, I think," Carter said. "That's why she was so desperate to get off world. And why she stopped making symbiotes."

"Without a Jaffa to incubate the larvae, they will soon perish," Teal'c said. "If Hathor's Menat was broken and she lacked Jaffa to incubate her larvae, the whole litter would not have survived."

"What happened, Carter?" he asked.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a second. She opened them and looked at him. "After we put you in the sarcophagus, we were overpowered. I knew we couldn't stop her, not with every man on the base standing behind her. So I locked down the gate and the base."

Sam ran down the hall, her brain torn between the ramifications of what Hathor was doing and how she could possibly stop it. Jaffa. The colonel was now a Jaffa. How the hell had Hathor done that?

If Hathor could make one Jaffa, she could make more.

Sam paused for a second. An army. There had to be hundreds of larvae in that tub. Probably enough to give every man on this base. An army of Jaffa, totally loyal and, if Teal'c was anything to go by, alarmingly resilient.

If they got out, they could blend in. Hell, with their survival training they could disappear, vanish into the wilderness, lay low and hide for a few years until their symbiotes matured. Then there'd be hundreds of goa'uld on the planet. Any and all of them willing to fight to take control.

Driven by the horror of what might be, she turned a corner and made her way to the control room. This had to stop, and it had to stop now.

Sparing no time for niceties, she raised her rifle and hit the tech on the head before pushing him to the floor. She sat down and typed furiously, well aware that she had maybe minutes before they found her.

She accessed the iris program and hacked into the credentials subroutine, altering passwords and access. She deleted all but her own, and then changed it, doing her best to make it as complicated as possible.

She heard voices in the hall and she slammed her hand down on the panic button, lowering the blast shields and locking the door.

She had no more than a couple of minutes left and she banged her fingertips into the keyboard, setting the machine into its normal backup protocols, using the existing program to write her changes onto the backups.

She left the backup running and accessed another terminal, hacking into the environmental scans to tell the computer that there was a biological hazard. The corners of the screen flashed red and she knew that the upper levels of the base were locking themselves down. The men at the top would seal the blast doors and cut the mountain off from the rest of the world.

A loud clang echoed across the room and Sam knew that her time was running out. She dug deeper into the directories, deleting files that she knew would 'break' the computer, files vital to its programming.

Finally, self-preservation stilled her hands and she shut the computer down, retrieving her gun as she got to her feet. She had to hide, maybe she could hide and regroup and…a brilliant flash and loud bang knocked her off her feet. Before she could regroup a multitude of hands pulled her weapon from her and yanked her to her feet.

"She was…mad," Carter said, the way she avoided his eyes speaking volumes.

"Carter." Jack reached out to touch her arm and she pulled back, holding up one hand to keep him away.

"Don't," she said. Jack took a step back, instinctively responding to the need in his second's voice. "Colonel, she's still here. She has to still be here," she said, raising one hand to rub her forehead as if she was in pain.

"We'll find her," he said. "Everyone's getting an MRI. You have this place locked up tight, it's just a matter of time," he reassured.

"Don't you understand? That's the one thing we don't have!" She said. "She took over this base because we gave Daniel time to talk to her. Because you gave her time to kiss your hand and do whatever the hell it was that she did to control you all. We don't have time!"
She stormed past him and barreled out of the room.

"What the hell?" Jack asked, looking at Teal'c.

"I believe Captain Carter holds the belief that Hathor will again attempt to regain control of this base," Teal'c said.

"Could that happen?"

"I don't think so, sir." Jack turned to see one of the nurses move towards him. "Colonel, we had a lot of time to talk this out, all of us, and, ahh, we have a theory."

"What is your theory?" Teal'c asked.

"Doctor Frasier basically thought Hathor was making the men…" She broke off and Jack raised his eyebrows, puzzled at her discomfiture.

"I believe Doctor Frasier used the term libidinous," Teal'c said.

"Li…what?"

"She used pheromones to influence you. To get you do follow her and pretty much do anything she asked you to do," the nurse said. "Our idea is, if she's in a male right now, it just doesn't work that way. If anything, all she can do is try to influence the females…and there's six of us," she said with a shrug.

"Can males not influence other males in such a manner?" Teal'c asked.

"It's not really the same," the nurse said. "The pheromones she was using are mating pheromones, and by and large, it's male and female, not same sex. There might be some appeal, but not to the extent that we saw with Hathor. I don't think it can happen again, not unless she's got herself in another female host."

"It would be most beneficial for us if your theory was correct," Teal'c said.

Jack ran his hand over his head. "Okay. Teal'c, go keep an eye on her."

Teal'c nodded. "And you, O'Neill?"

"I'm gonna go and get some answers."

::::::::::::::::::::::

Teal'c found Captain Carter in the observation room. She sat with her back against the wall, her attention fixated upon the machine below. He sat beside her and joined him in observing Doctor Frasier conduct the MRIs. One by one, personnel were escorted in and situated within the machine.

"I presume that she has not discovered Hathor's new host," he said, making his attempt at the Tau'ri phenomenon of 'small talk'.

She shook her head. "There is no way she got off this base."

"I concur."

"So she has to be in one of them."

"She does."

"So why can't they find her!"

He looked at her, nonplussed by her uncharacteristic display of frustration. "Hathor, even before she was imprisoned by Ra, was very well known for her cunning. She will not surrender herself so easily," he said.

Carter leaned back against the wall and rubbed her forehead. "They have to find her," she said. He could hear a tone of despair and hopelessness in her voice. "I don't know what to do if they don't."

"They will prevail," he reassured.

"I wish I could be so sure."

::::::::::::::::::::

Jack sat in front of the console in the security room, trying to ignore the helpless feeling that almost had him drumming his fingers on the table top. "How's this thing work?" he asked the nervous sergeant.

"Every camera in the base is routed through here. Most of them just take a series of still shots, a picture a second. There's just a few in important places, like the control room, where the feeds are recorded in real time."

"Recorded?" Jack asked.

"Video tape, sir." He gestured towards a massive shelving unit taking up a whole wall. "Every six hours we change the tape. We used to keep them, but, well you can imagine how many tapes we go through in a day. They started recycling them, we only keep the tapes for a month until we tape over them, unless something happens."

"Define something," Jack requested.

"Like if there's an accident in the lab or incident with the iris, things that might get investigated. Then we pull those tapes out and put them in a secure place until after any investigation," he explained.

Jack nodded. "Holding cells?"

"Yes, sir. Although just photos and live monitoring."

"Can you pull up the rooms that Carter and the other women were kept in?"

The sergeant nodded and pulled the keyboard aside, typing in a few commands. "Carter was in room three, the other ladies in room six. The folders are right there." He pointed at the monitor. "The file name is the date and then numerical order."

"Thank you. I got it from here," Jack dismissed.

"Yes, sir."

He moved back to his monitor and Jack manipulated the mouse, finding one of the rooms and clicking his way through the series of photos. From what he could tell, Frasier and the other ladies had had a boring two weeks. He saw very few interactions with other members of the base beyond basic deliveries of food and clean clothing. He flipped through a few more days' worth of photos and they all looked basically the same.

He moved onto the other file, pulling up the images from Carter's room. Immediately, he knew something was different and he found himself unable to turn away as he flipped through photo after photo.

Suddenly, things made sense, and he realized that the stakes were higher than he'd ever imagined. Quickly printing out a few of the photos, Jack nearly tore them off the printer and left the room.

::::::::::::::::::::::

Footsteps echoed through the silence of the halls and Sam sat up, trying to ignore the fear that set her heart to racing. Keys rattled in the lock and the door creaked open, two figures preceding Hathor into the room.

The two men crossed the room and pulled Sam off the bed, dragging her to her feet. She didn't fight; it hadn't taken her long to learn that it was a waste of effort.

"What is the key to the lock that you have placed upon the chappai?" Hathor asked, not bothering with small talk.

Sam shook her head, feeling bizarrely bored with the woman's lack of originality. She'd been asked the question so many times that she'd almost find it refreshing to have the goa'uld ask her something else.

"Tell me how to leave this world!" Hathor demanded.

"You could shoot yourself in the head," Sam suggested.

Hathor's eyes narrowed and she raised her hand. Suddenly, the two men holding Sam's arms let her drop, just as Hathor fired a burst from her weapon. It struck Sam and threw her across the room.

She lay there stunned, aching from the impact as Hathor walked over to her. Hathor grabbed her chin and forced her to look at her. "I will no longer waste my time with you." Hathor glanced behind her. "There are far too many candidates, very willing to educate you in the error of your ways."

She got to her feet and Sam watched as she left, a dark familiar figure replacing her in the doorway.

The warm pressure of a hand pulled Sam from her doze and she sat up with a start. "Did she find her?" she asked, glancing from Teal'c to the room below.

"I am not certain," Teal'c replied. "But I believe that we should attend this gathering."

Sam looked down to see General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill, Daniel, Doctor Frasier and a few others in the MRI room. She got to her feet and followed him down. General
Hammond acknowledged them as they walked into the room and then nodded at Frasier to continue.

"As I was saying, sir, I've finished the scans of the base personnel. I did not find a symbiote in any of them."

"What?"

"Are you certain, doctor?" Hammond asked.

"Completely, sir. You can ask my nurses. They were here for every scan," she said.

"That's not possible," Sam said. "She has to be here."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but the scans don't lie."

"NO!" Sam insisted. "She's here. You missed something. You did it wrong!"

"Stand down, Captain," Hammond ordered. He took a breath and continued in a calmer voice. "While I commend you for your dedication to the security of this base, Doctor Frasier's tests have proven that your concerns, while well meant, seem to be unfounded. I need you to go to the control room and relinquish your control of the computers." She shook her head. "Captain—"

"No, sir. She's here. She has to be here. If we open up the gate, she's going to get away," Sam insisted.

"Look, Sam—"

"No, Daniel."

"Captain, if you don't open that gate there are a dozen men out there that will die. Deaths you will be personally held accountable for," Hammond said. He waved and two SF's stepped forward. "Escort Captain Carter to the control room. If she does not release her control of this facility, shoot her."

"General!" Daniel protested.

Teal'c stepped forward only to be stopped by three guards raising their weapons.

"General," Jack said.

"NO! I have had enough of her defiance!" he said. "I am in command here, not you, and you will do as I say."

"Sir, don't you think you're being a bit…harsh," Frasier said. "I'm sure that the captain is willing to unlock the computers."

"No," Sam said softly. "I won't do it. And if that means you're going to kill me, so be it."

"Sam, for god's sake, it's not worth it," Daniel said.

"Listen to him, Captain. We do not wish to see you killed," Frasier said.

"We?" Jack stepped in front of her.

"Colonel?"

"What do you mean by we?"

"We. The base. The people here that need to go home and the men that are trapped off world," she said, frowning at him.

Teal'c moved closer, standing to within just a few inches of Frasier. "O'Neill—"

"Lemme guess, there's a goa'uld in this room," Jack said, pulling a pistol and pointing it at Frasier.

"Colonel, you're making a mistake—"

"Jack, don't let her get too close to you," Daniel warned.

Frasier looked at each of them, shaking her head helplessly. In an instant, her eyes narrowed and glowed menacingly. A snarl curled her lips and she surged forward. She threw Jack aside and pushed past Teal'c. "Meddlesome bitch!" she yelled, wrapping her hands around Sam's throat. Gunfire cracked the air and Frasier fell, pulling Sam down with her.

She fell awkwardly and barely had time to try and get up before hands grabbed her arms, dragging her away from Frasier.

"Stay back!" Teal'c yelled as one of the SF's moved to check Frasier. He positioned himself near her head as Frasier's body contorted. Sam hears a sickening slurping sound before a pale shape pushed past her lips.

Through the clatter of weapons being readied, Teal'c held up one hand, and then his other flew down, catching the symbiote as it emerged. He held it in his hand and got to his feet.

"Teal'c?"

He ignored Jack and easily broke the creature's spine. It squealed in pain and he tossed it to the floor, grinding it to a grisly pulp beneath his boot. "You shall harm no others."

Jack glanced at Teal'c before kneeling down to check on Frasier. "She's still alive."

"Get the medics down here," Hammond ordered. The SF's hurried to summon the medics even as Jack shook his head, silently confirming what they all knew.

"You said Hathor turned you into a Jaffa, right?" Daniel asked as Teal'c pulled Sam to her feet.

"Yeah."

"If the sarcophagus could bring Shaur'ri back to life, maybe it can help her."

"Do it," Hammond ordered. Teal'c left her and picked Frasier up. He and Daniel hurried from the room, leaving Sam alone with Jack and Hammond. "Captain, I apologize. I had no intention of having you shot, but we knew that you are the only person on this base Hathor won't kill or let be killed."

"Helluva bluff," Jack said. "Remind me never to play poker with you, sir."

Hammond nodded and turned to Sam. "I know that you've been through a lot, but I need you to reverse the lockdown," he said.

"Yes, sir," Sam said automatically.

"Come on," Jack said. "I'll take you down there." He led her out of the room and towards the elevators. "You know, we were going to handle things a little bit differently," he said. "Frasier…Hathor, just called us in there before we could do anything. We were going to confront her but then Teal'c brought you down and…"

She nodded. "How did you know?"

He pulled some crumpled papers out of his pocket and handed them to her. The first showed Hathor standing over Frasier. "Security cameras kept recording," he said. "I don't know why we didn't think to check there first."

Sam leafed through them and she stopped, her stomach clenching at the sight of herself. She was kneeling on the floor, Hathor standing over her. "The beam is visible," she said, finding the thought both intriguing and disturbing.

"Is that who I think it is?" he asked, pointing at the two figures holding her. Figures wearing standard green.

Sam nodded. "They were eager to please her. Helping pleased her," she said.

"And this?" He pulled a different image out of the bundle. A person stood over her, his hand raised as if to strike.

"When she got tired of trying, she had a contest. Whoever got her off the planet would go with her. He'd be her new Chosen One."

"Carter—"

She shoved the papers back at him. I don't…can I just go and fix the gate, please?"

"Yeah, sure."

He pushed the button for the elevator and escorted her down to the control room. "All yours," he said, gesturing broadly.

"Colonel?"

Jack held up his hand, silencing Walter. Sam reached for a pad and pen and scribbled down a few words. "Here," she said, handing it to Walter.

Jack intercepted it. "Bytem3b!tch&burn!nh3ll?"

"It was the best I could come up with on short notice," she said.

"Remind me not to piss you off." Jack handed it over to Walter.

The sergeant punched it in and looked up as the screen changed. "We're in."

"You'll have to manually rebuild the password files," she said. "I should have deleted all the backups."

He frowned. "Yes, ma'am."

"Now what?" she asked.

"Infirmary. Warner and some relief personnel should be waiting at the surface."

Sam nodded silently and got to her feet. She looked out the window to see Daniel and Teal'c standing vigil over the sarcophagus. "What if it doesn't work?"

"It will," he said. He looked over at her and shrugged. "It will."

::::::::::::::::

Jack walked up the short sidewalk and stopped in front of the door, taking a deep breath. Telling himself that he was a fool to be so nervous, he knocked on the door, fighting the urge to look around while he waited for it to be answered.

Just as he was ready to knock again, he heard the door being unlocked and it opened. She was clad in some type of lounge pants and a baggy t-shirt. Her hair was mussed and her eyes bleary. "I’m sorry, is this a bad time?" he asked.

"No, colonel, umm…"

"You got a couple of minutes?" he asked, not in the mood to talk at her front door.

"Sure," she shrugged, stepping back to let him in.

Jack walked down the short hall and into the living room, standing awkwardly while he waited for her to close the door and catch up. A rumpled throw and dented pillow told him how she'd been spending her afternoon. "Did you need something, colonel?"

The fact that there was no invitation to sit, no offer of a drink confirmed Jack's suspicions. "I just had a couple of questions," he said, pulling some pieces of paper out of his pocket.  "I was, aah, reading through your report." He ignored  her frown. "And I noticed something.

"What was that?" she asked guardedly.

"No names," he said.

"Colonel?"

"I read the whole thing, and there's not a single name of any of the SGC personnel that helped Hathor."

"I couldn't remember them," she said flatly, sinking down on the couch.

"Right," he said skeptically. He sat down in a chair. "If you want to transfer, I won't fight it and Hammond will sign off on it," he said. "Any other team would be glad to have you."

"Why would I want to transfer?" she asked.

"Carter, I may not have perfect recall of those two weeks, but I have enough," he said. "And I know you  good enough to know that you're lying about what you remember."

She looked away and sighed before looking back. "You fought her," she said. "Out of everyone, you fought her the hardest." She pulled the throw into her lap and twisted it in her fingers. "After the first couple of days, she didn't even bring you in anymore. I can't….she kept having to do that hand kissing thing." She shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're pretty zen about all this," he said.

She shook her head. "I'm not. I'm pretty disgusted with the whole male species at the moment." She looked at him. "Just like I was a few months ago with Daniel and his whole 'anthropologists do this all the time' crap."

Jack grimaced. That had definitely not been one of their finest hours.

"And I'm pissed off that no one listened to me or Teal'c when she first came down. And that you let her have free run of the base and that you were a patronizing bastard when I tried to talk to you about it." She ranted on and Jack didn't say a word. True, his memories were fuzzy, but he did have fairly good  recall of him and Hammond going all goo-goo eyed.

"But naming and shaming won't accomplish anything. And then I tell myself that we're doing stuff that other people can't even dream of and that we're making a lot of this up as we go along and…" She trailed off and shrugged. "Ignore me again and I think I'll take you up on that offer," she said.

"Carter--"

"You don't have to blindly believe me, just listen."

He nodded.

"And the next time I have a goa'uld in my sites like I did Hathor, I'm gonna shoot first and ask questions later," she warned.

Jack shrugged. "Definitely sounds like a good plan." He got to his feet. "Look, I should leave you to…whatever you were doing." She nodded and pushed aside the throw, getting up to show him out. He motioned for her to stay sitting. "I'll let myself out."

"See you tomorrow, sir."

:::::::::::

"I must say, you're rather calm about the whole thing," Mackenzie said, his fingers tapping slowly and silently on his blotter.

"Am I supposed to be crying or something?" Sam asked.

Mackenzie shrugged. "Captain, your own team mates helped Hathor torture you."

"Only the colonel did," she corrected. "I never saw Daniel after she captured me and Teal'c was locked in a holding cell." She wondered if General Hammond was getting asked if he was upset because he'd been cold cocked by one of his captains.

"Still…"

"Doctor, they tried," she said. "I watched them…most of them, try to fight her." She shrugged.

She kept her voice calm even as the ridiculousness of his questions annoyed her. You would think, with as many people he had to interview and clear he couldn't be spending his time nitpicking and almost looking for a reason to keep a person as a patient.

"And those that didn't fight?"

"Is it wrong that I find it amusing when they turn and go the other way when they see me in the hall?" She really had noticed some of the men doing that, and really the fact that they seemed ashamed helped her to deal better with what they'd done.

He frowned and looked down, scribbling a few words. "I don't know if I would define it as wrong," he said carefully

He pulled a piece of paper out of his desk drawer, signed it and handed it to her. "I think, presuming that you have been honest about both your feelings about your team and Hathor, there's no reason for you not to get back to work."

Feeling oddly triumphant, she took the paper from him and left his office. She folded it into thirds and slipped it into her pocket as she made her way to her lab.

Once there, she sat down and savored the moment. It was just barely two weeks since Hathor's death and she felt like things were finally getting back to normal.

"So, are you sane?" a voice asked.

She looked up to see Colonel O'Neill walk into the room. "Doctor Mackenzie seems to think so," she said, handing him the paper.

"I always knew there was something wrong with him," he said, glancing at it before tucking it into his pocket.  "I don't think he ever got the memo that you need to be INSANE to work here."

She grinned. "Have you heard anything about Doctor Frasier?"

"She should be back next week," he said. He had been right; the sarcophagus had indeed worked its miracles and restored the woman to perfect health. Physical health anyway. He knew it'd take her a bit to overcome the emotional toll of being taken as a host, even if it was just for a few hours. He shoved his hands into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. "So…we should celebrate."

"Celebrate?"

"You passing Mackenzie. Doc coming back, things getting back to normal," he listed.

"Normal?"

"As normal as this place ever gets. How about pizza? My place, you, me, Daniel, Teal'c."

"Pizza sounds good," she agreed.

"Sweet. 1800. If you want anything besides beer, bring it."

He left and Sam looked after him for a few seconds before she woke her computer up and signed on.

Normal. She didn't think the job here would ever be anything close to normal. And it'd be pretty damn boring if it was.

~Fin~

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