Part Three
The Goa’uld

This could not be happening.

A part of Chris Larabee refused to believe it when his mind had finally cleared and the agony endured by his physical self, had finally diminished enough to inflict upon him an even greater suffering of emotional pain. Every limb ached as he tried to get to his feet, the memory of the excruciating pain that had been inflicted upon him, stabbed at him even as he stood up shakily with Nathan’s help. Chris knew where the others were as he limped forward to join them. He did not know if he could stand seeing what they were witnessing at this moment but he was apart of the circle and so he had to be there.

No one spoke because they were too shocked by what had happened.

His breath caught as he saw Buck pulling off his coat and laying it over Vin’s motionless form. His old friend looked up sombrely when he saw Chris approached, the grief in his eyes was so thick that it was a knife driven into Chris’ heart. He had no idea that Buck’s sorrow was mirrored in his own pained expression. Buck stepped away as Chris lowered himself unto his knees with a slight groan of pain and forced himself to look under the coat even though it took a supreme effort not to scream in rage and denial. Unfortunately burying himself in unreality was not Chris’ way of handling grief. He plunged into it readily, allowing it to drown him in its black depths.

Removing the coat with trembling fingers, Chris found himself at the empty shell that was Vin Tanner. The discolouration and unusual angle of his neck left no doubt as to the cause of death. Whatever that thing was that now inhabited Alexandra Styles’ body, it had snapped his neck like kindling, taking from this world the best friend he had ever had. The anger inside Chris constricted his throat until he could not breathe. He had to stand up and walk away or else he would have put his fist through something and start screaming.

"Chris," Buck went after him as he staggered away. "Are you all right?"

"No I am not alright Buck." He snarled in response. "Vin is dead, Ezra is Christ only knows where, Alex has become a goddamn killer and Mary…" he started to falter as that began to sink in. "The kindest thing I can probably do for Mary at this point, is to kill her! No I ain’t even close being fucking all right."

"That maybe," Buck agreed, unable to refute anything Chris was saying and wishing that he could allow the gunslinger time to cope with the lost of a wife and three friends but he could not. The situation was tenuous enough as it was and while they had their own grief to contend with, the fact remained that Ezra was still alive and despite the condition that they were in, so were Mary and Alex. "But this ain’t the time to go to pieces Chris, we need you. Ezra’s still out there and we got to get him back."

Chris turned on him viciously, wondering how anyone could ask anything of him now when Vin was lying dead and Mary might as well be. "Get him back from where!" He shouted. "They’re gone Buck! They went through that....that…" Chris looked at the circle of stone, unable to even think a name to describe it. "Whatever that is!" He gave up when he was unable to find one that seemed to suit.

"We can’t give up on them!" Buck roared angrily, feeling the same pain that Chris did but Buck knew that if he gave in now, if he allowed Chris to wallow in his grief like the man was itching to do so now, Chris would never emerge from it. It was like this when Sarah had died and Buck knew all the signs, he could see it coming as surely as it were something tangible in front of his face. He refused to let Chris give up then and he sure as hell was not about to do it now. Not when there was some measure of hope for their lost friends, no matter how remote it might seem. While Mary and the others were still alive, Buck Wilmington was not going to give her up for dead, not her, not Ezra, any of them.

"Go to hell Buck!" Chris swore, angry and wanting to hurt something or someone. Buck’s provocation was driving his rage past the point of control and they faced each other with both tempers spiralling rapidly out of control. "That woman is my wife and I want her back more than anything but I don’t know how to help her or to bring her back and I can’t watch what she’s become!"

"You’re a goddamn coward Chris!" Buck roared. "You can’t stand?" He glared at his oldest friend in the world unwilling let the matter rest, no matter what the consequences. "What the hell do you think she’s going through? She’s still in there somewhere, trapped inside herself, watching that monster that’s taken her body do things that she can’t imagine! Are you just going to leave Mary like that! Even a dog deserves to be put out of its misery Chris!"

That was the last straw. Chris launched himself at Buck and the big man was ready to take the challenge, more than ready to trade blows when Josiah intervened, trying to prise them apart before things deteriorated any further, as if they were not far from being dismal as it is. "Stop it the both of you!" His gravelly voice resonated with authority. "This ain’t the time for this!"

"Stay out of it Josiah!" Chris shouted as he tried breaking free of the grip that Josiah was using to keep him and Buck from brawling like a couple of drunks.

"No I ain’t gonna let you both act like stupid vengeful children!" The preacher retorted loudly, his own anguish at what had taken place inside this cavern surfacing as he watched his friends tear each other apart when this was the time they needed to be united the most. Vin Tanner meant as much to him as any of them and he hated that things had come to this point. There were dark things at foot here and the Lord was not likely to help them if they were behaving like this.

"I ain’t the one who’s giving up on Ezra!" Buck defended himself vehemently, just as furious because like Josiah, he saw the need for action not remorse. Ezra Standish may have been a scheming, self serving, morally deprived human being but he was their scheming, self serving, morally deprived human being. Buck was not willing to abandon him to whatever lay on the other side of the mysterious passageway that Mary and Alex had taken him through.

"Shut up Buck! I want to help Ezra as much as you do!" Chris roared furiously, incensed that Buck could think him so willing to discard one of his own men. Chris knew that they had to help Ezra but he had no idea how to do that and it was this lack of knowledge that was making them all crazy. "I just don’t know how we’re going to do it!"

"We’ll got to try something!" Buck returned, accusation glaring from his eyes as it burned into Chris. Both of them were so wrapped up in their rage that they did not notice Nathan trying to get a word in edge wise.

"Try what!" Chris demanded, when suddenly a loud sound filled the room. All men immediately fell silent, their anger at each other dissipating as their eyes immediately found the source of the noise. The inner ring of the circle was moving again, locking into sequence as it did before, with pausing briefly at each symbol as if some code was being entered.

"Get away from it!" Nathan ordered, ushering them all away from its path. He had seen the surge of energy that had gushed forth from it when Alex and Mary had brought it to life earlier. There were too many unknowns about the device to demand anything but utmost caution to be exercised when dealing with it. They all hurried away from the thing, mesmerised by the strange sequence and the unearthly rumble it seemed to make as it rested momentarily on those peculiar symbols that were engraved along its dark surface.

"What the hell is it doing?" Buck demanded as they took cover a suitable distance away from the object.

"I don’t know," Chris stared at it as he saw something beginning to happen when the seventh symbol had been locked into place.

When the device had been activated the first time, Chris had still been screaming in pain from whatever Mary had done to him and so he had missed the terrifying sight of what Nathan was calling a portal, being opened. He watched a shimmer of light appear in the centre of the ring, resembling the surface of water with sunlight bouncing off the ripples of iridescent waves. Suddenly, the explosion of energy that Nathan described gushed forward, streaking half way across the cavern before recoiling back sharply into that glittering veneer that covered the hollow of the circle.

Chris emerged from their hiding place, his hand going for his gun because the effect once finished, did not looked threatening. Besides, it had just occurred to him that if this was a door way to some place else, then it might swing both ways and that could mean they were about to have visitors. He motioned the others to follow, who naturally took his decision to step forward as a sign that it might be safe to do so. Buck followed Chris closely, his own gun brandished as they waited with abated breath for something to emerge.

A few seconds later, it did. Someone stepped out of the shimmer but whether or not they were human was difficult to say. Automatically, Chris drew both his guns, with no hesitation in pulling the trigger if it appeared that the new arrival offered any threat. After seeing what Alex had done to Vin, Chris was taking no chances. The others did the same and the being that emerged in the strange coverings, froze in place. Every inch of him was hidden under a smooth material that looked nothing like cloth and he was aware immediately that there was danger. Behind him, three other figures stepped through the portal with similar surprise after realising what lay before them.

"Move and we’ll kill you!" Chris warned and this time he meant it. He would shoot them all dead if any of them so much as breathed wrong. Although he did not recognised all the equipment they were carrying with them but he had enough experience with strange travellers to know that what was slung around their shoulders were definitely weapons and extremely dangerous ones. "Drop the guns!" He ordered.

The figure in the lead stiffened at the suggestion. After a moment, he responded. "Not a chance in hell."

Chris did not expect that response because his voice sounded normal, not at all like the inhuman voices that Mary and Alex had used after they had been possessed, whatever one called it. However, he was not about to be questioned on this point. "Drop the guns or I will fill you so up many holes you’ll be dead before you hit the ground."

"Jack…." One of them started to say, looking at the leader in anxiety even though Chris could not see his face.

"Carter, where are we?" The leader responded. "This doesn’t look like the SGC." There was almost a hint of sarcasm in that demand.

"Chris," Buck started to feel uncomfortable about this. However strangely these people were dressed, they did not sound like those creatures that stolen Mary and Alex’s bodies. In fact, they sounded very much like people lost and confused by where they were. "Maybe, we ought to think about this."

"Like Vin thought about it?" Chris retorted sharply and silenced Buck immediately for they all could not forget that one of their number was lying on the floor of this very cavern dead, because he had foolishly believed that the woman he loved was still the person he knew.

"I don’t understand." Another one of the strangers stammered with just as much confusion added more to their bewilderment because she was undoubtedly female. "I dialled the address for home. We should be at the SGC."

"Am I the only whose noticing that we’re not?" The leader retorted, his annoyance beginning to turn into anger.

On that level at least, Chris could empathise with him and his own resolve at keeping this people under the point of a gun, wavered as he started to realise that perhaps they were as human as they sounded. Furthermore, if they were aware of how to use the portal, then perhaps they might be able to explain what had happened to Mary and Alex and how the seven could find Ezra. "You’re in New Mexico." Chris offered.

"New Mexico?" The leader exclaimed in stunned. "We’re in New Mexico!" He turned to the woman and demanded. "How can we be in New Mexico, there is no gate in New Mexico!"

Chris let out a sigh of exasperation, more or less deciding that these people were no danger to him and his friends. "Alright, who are you people?"

"I’m Doctor Daniel Jackson," one of them stepped forward, fumbling for the covering over his head.

"Daniel…" The leader started to protest.

"Jack, we’re not where we’re supposed to be and we need to know how we got here." The man named Daniel replied as if he were talking to a child. "Besides, if we don’t tell them something, they’re liable to shoot us."

"You got that right." Chris answered, resting a little easier even though he was not lowering his gun. Doctor Daniel Jackson as he called himself, removed the hood that was covering his face and revealed himself to be very much human, not much older than Vin Chris estimated. With dark gold hair, he stared at them behind steel rimmed glasses and possessed a manner that was not at all menacing but rather unassuming. Just from the way he spoke, Chris could tell immediately that he was not a man who was comfortable with violence.

"What year is this?" Daniel asked once he had shown himself to them. He had been studying these men the moment they had stepped through the gate and discovered they had not arrived at the SCG. Even though this was undoubtedly a Goa’uld enclave, he could see the evidence of their technology throughout the room, including the sarcophagus that lay at the far end, the fact that these men believed they were in New Mexico, made the whole thing impossible. Yet they were here and he needed answers to explain how SGI had come here.

"Aw not this again…" Buck started to groan. "1879." He declared. "Let me guess, you’re from the future right?"

Daniel looked genuinely shocked. "The year 2000 actually."

"Daniel enough." Jack O’Neill ordered when he finally removed the radiation suit as they were all doing at the moment. "What’s going on here?" He asked, this time directing his question to Chris whom he had realised was his counterpart in this time at the present moment.

"What’s going on?" Buck replied before Chris could answer. "We just saw two women whom we care about, his wife and a very pretty lady doctor, suddenly turn into murdering monsters who killed one of us and took the other through that there…whatever the hell that thing is!" Buck blurted out angrily, not possessing Chris’ patience in this situation.

"Oh hell," Jack swore out loud, realising that not only had they not arrived in the time period they should have, they had brought two Goa’ulds with them. "Let me guess, their eyes glowed?" He asked the man in black because he seemed to be in charge of things here.

"Yeah," Chris nodded, "Their eyes glowed. What happened to my wife?" He asked in a low voice, only seconds from tearing out the man’s throat if he was not given his answers. While Buck may think he was patient, Chris was actually biding him time, trying to see if these people could provide him with some inkling of what had taken Mary so he could fight it.

Daniel had started moving away from the others, having seen the bodies. Particularly of the two naked women whose corpses were rapidly decaying. No one seemed to be paying much notice to them possibly because there was a fresher body lying in the dirt, covered by someone’s coat which indicated he was someone important to the men assembled here. "Jack," he motioned them to the empty husks that had been previously occupied by Semkhet and Isis. "Over here."

"Jesus Christ!" Nathan exclaimed in horror as he realised the presence of the two bodies. "What’s happening to them."

"Once its leaves its old body, the corpse starts going downhill rapidly." He answered, meeting Chris’ gaze, understanding why there was so much paranoia running through the group. If this was 1879 and these men had encountered the Goa’uld, there was a lot of reason for them to be a little traumatised by the event, especially when one of those taken was a wife. It still pained him to think of Skaara was now a Goa’uld after how the much the boy had come to mean to him on Abydos. He had seen the agony endured by Daniel after he lost Sharee so he could only imagine what this stranger in black must be going through.

"What is it?" Chris asked softly, his eyes now transfixed on the withering bodies before him. Now he knew why they had wanted Alex. They needed her body because their own was dying. Had it been like that for Mary too?

"It’s a parasite." Sam took the opportunity to explain. "Its enters the body through the mouth or neck. Once it’s inside, it has complete possession."

"What about the person inside?" Josiah asked. "What happens to them?"

"They’re in there." She whispered, knowing from personal experience how it felt to be confined inside one’s mind with only a Goa’uld for company, helplessly watching it used her body against her will. She counted herself lucky that Jolinahr had been Tokra and not the bloodthirsty creature that was a system lord. "Trapped but powerless to do anything. The parasite has complete control over the mind and while the person is still in there, it cannot do anything but watch."

"Oh my god." Nathan whispered. "You mean Miss Alex would have seen that thing kill Vin?" He tried to imagine what must be going through Alex’s mind right now, whatever dark placed she was imprisoned. He could not imagine anything so terrible as to watch a love one die in front of them and be powerless to do anything about it.

"Yes," Sam nodded sombrely. "You remember everything."

"Jack," Daniel spoke up having moved to the sarcophagus and discovering that it was in perfect working order. "This thing works." He announced.

"Are you sure?" Jack strode over to the others. Chris had more or less forgone the effort of considering these strangers a threat, since they were freely admitting to him what had happened to Mary and were providing him with much needed information about the enemy they were facing.

"I don’t understand how this place could be here?" Sam replied looking around the cavern as her commanding officer went to investigate the sarcophagus. "We only knew of two gates on Earth."

"What exactly is this gate?" Buck inquired.

"Well," Sam debated how to explain it to him. She had reservations of telling him too much because she worried about the effect it had on the time line but it was more or less a moot point with them witnessing arrival of SG1 and the Goa’uld through the gate. "It’s a gateway through the stars."

"You’re joking." He looked at her in astonishment. "You mean the ones up in the sky?"

"Yes," she nodded and saw him struggling to grasp the enormity of it all. She could not blame him of course. If 1878 was really the time, then he might as well be from the stone age where the gate was concerned. "This takes us from one planet to another instantly. All we have to do is step through."

"Wow!" JD exclaimed, his youth allowing no restraint on his enthusiasm. "You actually travel through one star to the other?"

Sam could not help but smile at his way of putting it and as she looked up at the man with the moustache, he was sharing the moment with her. "Something like that." Sam nodded and then turned to the older man. "I take it they left as soon as they had new bodies?" She ventured a guess at what had taken place here prior to SG1’s arrival.

"Yeah," Buck nodded sadly. "Woman who killed Vin over there," he motioned to Vin’s body lying on the ground nearby, "she was his fiancee."

"Oh god," Sam gasped. "I am sorry." She said genuinely horrified by what a terrible thing it must have been for all of them. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. "Colonel!" She brushed past Buck and hurried to Jack and Daniel who were examining the sarcophagus.

"What more surprises?" Jack looked over his shoulder at her sarcastically.

"If the sarcophagus works, can’t we put him in there?" She looked at the dead man lying under the coat. "I mean if the Goa’uld’s arrival here was an accident then that man should not be dead. If we are to maintain the time line, he needs to live and we’ve got to bring these women back."

"What do you mean, put him in there?" Chris interjected, feeling like he was five steps behind and he supposed he was. "What good will that do? He’s dead."

"Carter I don’t know." Jack said reluctantly. "We’re messing with history here."

"I believe Doctor Carter is right." Teal’c who had remained silent until this point remarked. He had been quiet because he suspected that he intimidated the humans in the room with him somewhat. "The disruption to your world’s history has suffered much already. If there is chance to repair the damage, it must be taken for we have no idea how this will effect the future events of the Tau’RI."

Jack frowned in distaste because he disliked using Goa’uld technology, especially the sarcophagus. He remembered how Daniel had become after prolonged use of the device and discouraged anyone from utilising its life regenerating effects. However, at this point in time, it appeared that they had not any choice in the matter. Carter and Teal’c were correct in their assertion that the integrity of the time line had to be maintained. If this man was not meant to die and had done so because of an accidental encounter with a Goa’uld, who knows what repercussions his absence may have on future events? It might be minor fluctuation and then again it could be a major one, whatever the case, they could not take the gamble.

"Alright," Jack let out sigh of resignation. "Put him in."

"Put him in?" Chris demanded as he saw the woman and the imposing black man making moves towards Vin’s dead body. "You ain’t putting him anywhere until you tell us what you’re doing." Just to emphasise the point, Josiah and Nathan took up position near Vin’s body, refusing to allow anyone to disturb it until explanations were forthcoming.

"Do you want him back or not?" Jack growled, his mood not improving by the debate considering what they were doing was bringing a man back to life.

"Back?" Nathan’s eyes widened by the implication. "He’s dead! How can you bring him back?"

Jack shifted uncomfortably where he was standing, never being able to explain the sarcophagus healing properties to any satisfactory manner. He glanced at Sam and Daniel, hoping that they would jump in and relieve him of that particular chore. However, judging by the uneasy expressions on their face, Jack did not expect a rescue to be forthcoming. Besides, the man in black was looking at him and Jack had the impression that he wanted to hear the truth from Jack who had clearly established himself as the leader of the SG1 team. "That thing over there," Jack glanced in the direction of the sarcophagus. "The Goa’ulds use it to keep their bodies young and healthy for a long time."

"Goa’uld?" JD tried to pronounce it and could not the inflections right.

"That’s what we call them." Daniel volunteered helpfully.

"Right," Jack nodded, glancing at his feet before meeting the man in black’s gaze once again. "You got a name?" He asked.

"Chris Larabee." Chris replied shortly. "Keep going, you said they use it to keep bodies healthy." The gunslinger prompted, wanting to hear this if there was even a slight chance that Vin could be restored to them again.

"Nice to meet you too," Jack muttered under his breath and continued. "It keeps bodies alive and young, even ones that have been hurt or diseased. It can heal just about anything and on occasion, we’ve found that it can revive a body that hasn’t been dead for long. So if your friend over there has any chance of waking up alive, we’ve got to get him in there right now."

It was too unbelievable, all of it. However, it was no less harder to believe than anything else he had seen today and the truth was, if it could give Vin his life back, then Chris was willing to risk it, no matter how far fetched it may sound. "Let them do it." He said after a moment.

"You sure about this Chris?" Nathan asked. "We don’t know anything about that contraption."

"It can’t hurt Vin any more than he already is." Chris said softly. "Go on," he looked at Sam and Teal’c. "Do what you have to."

They did not move until Jack nodded his approval to proceed. The two members of SG1 acted quickly and with Teal’c brushing past Josiah and Nathan who had stepped aside, allowing him access to the dead tracker. Teal’c picked up the corpse without any assistance while Sam returned to the sarcophagus, examining the device to see if it was in working order as Daniel believed it was. While Sam respected Daniel in every way, he was by nature an Egyptologist and linguist while she was the one with all the technological expertise regarding Goa’uld technology.

"Have you seen this work before?" Buck asked Jack as Teal’c walked past them.

"A couple of times." Jack replied, neglecting to tell them that he had used the device himself even though he had never liked it very much. "It works." The group gathered around the sarcophagus as same activated the controls and the machine came alive with light oozing through the ornate plating that covered it. The sarcophagus gave off an eerie glow as Teal’c lowered Vin’s body into its smooth insides. The surface illuminated as soon his body made contact.

"This thing will bring him back to life?" JD asked with unmasked awe as contact with Vin’s body activated the device’s locking mechanism and the enormous lid slid to a close over him. They stepped back and watched him disappear, not daring to hope that he could be walking amongst them again.

"Now what?" Buck asked Sam, feeling most comfortable talking to her of all the strangers that had come through the gate.

"Now we wait." She replied.

*********

Nightfall came very quickly following the arrival of the travellers. Since they could not leave while Vin was inside the device, there was no choice but to build a campfire and take care of the bodies, not only of the Goa’uld but of the unfortunate excavation team that had uncovered this underground bunker. They worked in silence as they performed the burial, with the same reverence given to the former hosts of Isis and Sekhmet as they did to the dead men. As Daniel had explained to the seven, these hosts had been just as innocent as Mary and Alex had been when they were taken and should be afforded the same respect. Josiah even went so far as to say a few words as they buried the dead in the desert outside.

Following that, they sat around the campfire and waited for Vin to emerge from the sarcophagus. No one had very much to say at first, being lost in their own thoughts as to the events of the day. Sam Carter spent most of her time trying to understand why they had been sent back through time to this distant age in their history. Perhaps it was just serendipity that had allowed this bunker to be uncovered at the same time that the Goa’uld were attempting to use the gate. It was impossible to predict the chain of events were time was so completely out of sync. Sam was certain that the solar disruption on Planet PX250 had been the cause of their unexpected arrival here.

A solar flare once before had sent the SG1 team back to the year 1969 and while this was a great deal farther back and the situation more critical because there would be no General Hammond to help them, Sam believed there was a way home. They had access to the gate, which meant they had access to races that had the technology to help, them get back to their own time. The Nox and Tollan for example were more than capable of assisting them in such an endeavour or even reproduce the same surges of energy that had sent them here in the first place. To her surprise, the priority at this point was not them getting home but the recover of the women and the man who had become victims of the Goa’uld.

Daniel in the meantime, busied himself by conducting an examination of the bunker that Doctor Faulkner would never be able to perform himself. He felt saddened that the excavation team should die so tragically when this find should have been the discovery of their lives. As he continued his studies of the place, the young man named JD stayed close to him, listening to his discoveries and ruminations with complete fascination. He asked questions and paid attention to Daniel’s answers and the linguist found that he liked JD a great deal and was reminded of Skaara. Of course, he did not bring that observation to Jack’s attention.

After awhile, Daniel had learnt enough about the place to develop something of a hypothesis about this place and its strange origins here. They had encountered cultures that had a North American influence and they had always assumed they had come through the gate that had been located in Egypt. However, the presence of a stargate here seemed to explain how those tribes had come to be seeded on worlds half way across the galaxy.

Chris Larabee said nothing, merely staring into the fire as they waited. Most of the conversation was being made by Buck who had a thousand questions about the Goa’uld and who they were, while Sam answered most of his queries. As always, Buck was quick to charm the only woman in the place and while she fended off his flirtations with good humour, it was not hard to see that she was slightly taken in by them as well.

Chris listened quietly, not saying much even though he listened to everything that was being said. Despite everything that had taken place today, Chris still had trouble believing that any of this had happened, that Mary had turned into a ruthless killer and Vin was dead. Even though the strangers through the gate had assured him the device they had placed the tracker inside would bring him back to the friends who mourned him, Chris still felt empty. His thoughts seemed singularly focussed on Mary. Where was she at this moment and what had she become? As he listened to the strangers talk about these Goa’uld, Chris could hardly imagine what terrible things she was forced to witness while something controlled her body and forced it to perform such callous acts of cruelty. He had seen the creature in her eyes and knew with absolute certainty that it was not his Mary and it ached each time, he thought of how helplessly he had lost her.

"So what’s the story Daniel?" Jack asked when Daniel and JD returned to the campfire.

"Well there is evidence everywhere that this place was devoted to Isis." Daniel let his gaze sweep across the cavern. Judging by how much spacial degradation that has been inside the bunker, I’m going to have to say it hasn’t seen traffic in about two thousands years. It’s hard to say for certain, I need more specialised equipment."

"This thing has been alive for two thousand years?" Josiah asked incredulously.

"Yes," Daniel answered. "With the sarcophagus, they can keep their bodies well preserved for hundreds of years and when it finally starts to decay they move." He did not meet Chris’ eyes when he spoke. "That is also why the ancient races considered them gods."

"I think I know where they went." Nathan spoke out finally. With all that was taking place around them, what with the arrival of this strangers from the future, not to mention Vin’s death and now possible resurrection, he had forgotten all about the fact that he had memorised the sequence of glyphs as Daniel called them, on the dialling device.

"What do you mean, you think you know where they’ve gone?" Chris threw an accusatory glare at Nathan for not bringing this up sooner.

"Take it easy Chris," Buck warned, knowing he needed to be reminded some times that he was not the only grieving for lost friends. "Nathan are you sure?"

"When they went in," Nathan explained quickly, knowing Chris’s temper was poised on such a tenuous edge at the moment, it was best that he volunteered what he knew quickly. "I paid attention to the glyphs that they touched. At the time I figured it was important if there was any chance of getting Ezra back. I still remember the seqience."

The SG1 team exchanged glances because they knew as well as the new friends that they had encountered in this time, what this meant. "If he knows where they went, we can go after them." Daniel replied, stating the obvious.

"Colonel we have to," Sam added her voice into the discussion. "We have to bring those people back. We have no idea how this will effect future events. We could go home and finding nothing where it’s supposed to be. Isis and Sekhmet coming back here is not some predestination paradox, it’s an accident. We have to repair the damage."

Chris Larabee spoke. "We’re going with or without you."

Jack met the man’s eyes and saw that he was perfectly serious about using the gate. "That is not an option. This whole mess with time involves you too. Anything happens to you in there and we’d be back to square one."

"That’s your problem." Chris said firmly, making certain that Jack understood how determined he was on this point. "I’m going to get my wife."

"You would not even know how to find her, Chris Larabee." Teal’c interjected. "Isis is a Goa’uld System Lord, she would personal guards around her. Even if you are to reach her and Sekhmet, you will be faced with the same difficulty you encountered when you attempted to subdue her here. You will have even greater difficulty with Sekhmet. Her name is feared as the Eye of Ra, she has a great thirst for inflicting pain and I am told she is very good at it."

"I don’t care." Chris replied adamant. "She’s got my wife and if it means that I have to kill her to set Mary free, then that’s how its got to be. Anything has to be better than letting Mary suffer for centuries while this thing uses her up."

"And we’re all willing to go with him." Buck remarked, giving Chris a slight nod, indicating that the others were with him in and body and spirit. "Mary, Alex and Ezra are not just names in a history book of how things are supposed to be for you, they’re our friends and we ain’t letting them suffer the kind of hell you’re talking about. If it means going through that thing and facing what ever lies behind it, then we’re gonna do it. We’d rather have you with us but we’ll do it alone."

Chris did not speak for a moment because he was too overwhelmed by the intensity of Buck’s words and met the eyes of his old friend to convey a silent note of thanks, not just to Buck but to the rest of his friends who were gathered around the fire. He turned to Jack once again. "What’s it going to be? You’re going to help us?"

Jack found a slow smile stealing across his face despite the enormity of what this gunfighter was demanding. He had decided he liked Chris Larabee to the point of even seeing something in the man he relate to. He wondered secretly what it was that had twisted this man’s soul so out of shape and knew without actually hearing the details, Jack knew he had been there too. Their souls seemed similarly haunted. Despite the risks to the time line, history and all those other world shaping events, Jack also knew that if he were to find out where Skaara was this minute, there would be no force on heaven and earth that could keep him from going after the boy. This man had lost a wife and Jack knew personally how terrible that must be. He only had to look at Daniel to be reminded.

"I guess we don’t have much of choice." He conceded finally. "Okay, you come with us but you do it our way." He met Chris’ gaze directly. "You don’t know what’s on the other side of the gate, we do. We’ve been there and we’ve fought them. If we can get to your wife and your friends, we’ll get them back but you’ve got to know we’re facing big odds if they’re gone to a planet where they have control. The people on these planets think the Goa’uld are gods, they ready to die for them."

"People tend to get mighty protective about their faith." Josiah nodded in understanding; after all he came from a religious denomination that was willing to resort to burnings at the stake to maintain its integrity.

"We know the risks," Buck answered for all of them. "We’ll do what it takes to get them back." He glanced at Chris and added just so their leader did not have any ideas to the contrary. "We’ll also do it your way. You know the terrain better than we do."

"What happens if we do find them?" JD had to ask. In all their determination to retrieve Mary, Alex and Ezra, it appeared no one had given any thought to the question. "If those things are still inside of them, how do we get them out?"

"That will not be easy." Teal’c replied, seeing how uncomfortable his companions were to answer the younger man’s question. "The Goa’uld will do everything in its power to remain in the body of its host. It will not leave willingly. It can only be induced to do so if it believes that the host is dying."

Jack was glad that Teal’c was offering this information because he did not relish telling Chris Larabee that it would be near impossible to force a Goa’uld to vacate its host body. Memories of what his friend and fellow office, Kowalski had endured surfaced in Jack’s mind. The technology to remove the Goa’uld host did not exist a hundred and twenty years into the future, it certainly did not now.

Neither Jack nor Teal’c have to make that revelation because Chris was perceptive enough to guess what they were trying to put to him. "You’re saying that it will kill her before it lets her go."

"Yeah," Jack nodded, having no wish to lie to the man because he had to be prepared for the worst.

"Wait a minute Jack," Daniel spoke up because he hated the idea that Chris Larabee would lose his wife the way he had lost Sharee. The past three years since she had gone was a slow torture for Daniel because she was not dead, merely out of reach. It would have been so much simpler if the Goa’uld had just killed her, at least he could mourn her and continue with his life. Instead, they took her from him, a small piece at a time and that was far worse than knowing she dead. Since he became apart of SG1, Sharee had become Daniel’s Holy Grail which he was starting to realise he may never find her. He wanted to spare Chris Larabee that hell. "If we find her, we could take her to Thor’s Hammer.

"Colonel, that’s it!" Sam exclaimed in excitement. "We take them to Thor’s hammer. Kendra had a Goa’uld inside of her for years and she came out of it all right. If Larabee’s wife and the doctor have only been blended for only a day or so, there should be no reason why it can’t do the same for them."

"What is this thing?" Chris asked, trying not to let himself be carried away by any false hopes. There was no reason to believe that any of this could result the way he wanted and Chris was not one to linger on what if.

"It’s hard to explain," Sam turned to him to try anyway. "But Thors Hammer was built by a race even older than the Goa’uld. They must have been enemies as some point because the device was built specifically to remove a Goa’uld symbiote from its host body without harming the host."

"So if we take Mary and Alex to this Hammer thing, it will get rid of the Goa’ulds inside them?" Buck asked tentatively.

"More or less." Samantha said with a smile. "If we can get them there that is exactly what it will do."

"Then what in the hell are we waiting for?" A lazy voice drawled behind them. "Let’s go find them."

"Vin!" JD exclaimed as they all turned around to find the tracker appearing out of the darkness, beyond the sphere of the fire’s illumination. Vin looked as if he had just woke from a deep sleep, rubbing wakefulness back into his eyes as he approached them. He had woken up in that strange tomb like device and had a hundred questions as to why he had been placed there.

Immediately, the rest of the seven jumped to their feet to greet the tracker’s arrival except Chris, Jack noticed. The gunslinger hung back and the younger man they had revived in the sarcophagus being inundated with grateful slaps on the back and expressions of relief over his well being. He let out a secret sigh of relief, hiding the emotion that was running through him away from the others because Chris was not one to share how he felt, no matter how pleased he was.

Chris turned to Jack as the others surrounded Vin in happiness and said quietly. "Thank you for this."

"Its not going to be easy you know," Jack reiterated now that he had a moment alone with Chris, without the rest of the seven in attendance. "I know you want your wife back and we’re going to do everything to see that happens but you’ve got to expect the worse. We’ve been fighting Goa’ulds for three years now and I’m telling its going to be hard. We’re going to have trouble just getting through their guards."

"I ain’t good at taking orders," Chris admitted reluctantly.

"I got that impression." Jack remarked with a faint smile. "Ex – army?"

"Yeah," Chris nodded. "Captain for the Union Blue."

"Thought so," The colonel chuckled. "Just keep your head down and take our lead. We’ll get her back." He replied with more confidence than he felt.

"If not," Chris took a deep breath having thought about this long and hard during the last few hours, paying close attention to what Samantha Carter had been saying about the Goa’uld and their ways. He knew that he could do this thing as hard as it might be and what would happen to him after would be anyone’s guess. However, he had no choice, he had to do it because he loved Mary and he refused to let her suffer any more than she had to if he could save her from that pain. "If not, I’m going to kill her."

"What?" Daniel exclaimed, unable to believe what he had just heard.

"Daniel," Jack interrupted, knowing what Chris was saying even if his younger companion did not. "I understand." He said meeting Chris’ gaze. "If it comes to that, we won’t stop you."

"I appreciate that you don’t." Chris replied looking at Daniel when he said this. "Because I ain’t letting her go through the hell of being trapped with some monster in her own body. I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way of letting that happen."

*********

Ezra Standish hated to admit this but he was afraid.

He stared through the bars of his prison into the night sky outside his window and knew that everything he saw there was wrong. For starters, there seemed to be twin moons in the sky and while they did not hang like orbs of light against a blue canvas of twinkling stars, Ezra knew that they were not that different from the lunar object he knew. He had regained consciousness to find himself in this dark dungeon; the memory of pain still fresh in his mind as he tried to remember what had happened prior to the blackness that had taken him to this place.

His heart sank remembering that Alex or whatever had taken Alex, had lured Vin to his death. After that, things had become rather vague. He knew that he had stopped Chris from doing something foolish because the gunslinger had been ready to rush out and face Alex which Ezra knew would have gotten him killed as surely as Vin lay dead on the ground at her feet. Following that had been the experience of the most intense pain that Ezra Standish had ever endured. When Nicholas Serfonteine had tortured him, Ezra had believed that he could endure not much worse than the whip that almost tore the flesh from his back. However, it had paled in comparison with the agony that had racked him into oblivion only a short time ago.

He did not know where this was but he had the strange idea he was not in Four Corners any more or any place even resembling that. There were two moons outside and the stars in the amber speckled sky did not look right. Constellations were not where they were and that only added the rising apprehension that was clenching his heart with fear. Logically, the answer was right in front of him. Ezra was the result of a good education and that education included a healthy knowledge in the sciences. He knew there was only reason for what he was seeing outside his window, however impossible it might be. Unfortunately, today had taught him nothing was in the realm of impossible.

His prison was really a dungeon. The walls were made of thick, grey brick and there were bars on every small window. He was the only resident of the jail and there were guards posted out his door. He had taken a moment to inspect them and found to his surprise they were women. They were not dressed too indifferently from Mary but they wore headgear that was shaped like a lion and covered half of their faces. He had tried speaking to them but they were totally unresponsive to conversation. Finally Ezra gave up all together and returned to this insufferable waiting game, wondering after awhile if he was going to be left to languish here forever or if any of the others were confined in this way as well.

Ezra had started to doze off when suddenly, he heard the door of his jail open loudly. Ezra immediately woke, hearing footsteps entering the room. He remained seated on the cold hard floor and wished he had the benefit of his weapons but his derringer, like all his guns had been taken before he had regained consciousness. Until now, he had been suffering his confinement in darkness but as his visitor entered, she brought with her some kind of lamp but Ezra could see no flame flickering inside its casing. However, it was no stranger than anything else he had so far witnessed.

"You have rested?" She who was once Mary Travis Larabee asked him.

Ezra did not know how to answer. She was wearing a soft white gown that felt like gossamer against her skin and her hair was splayed across her shoulders in a cascade of gold. Mary had always seemed pristine to him. She was the kind of woman one admired but not lusted after. Chris Larabee’s feelings were another matter entirely but Ezra had always felt drawn to Mary but not attracted to her. He cared for her as they all did but as he stared at her now, she made his mouth go dry. She did not simply look attractive, she exuded sex as if it were something that could be tasted and felt on one’s fingers tips.

"Yes," Ezra spoke softly, looking away because she looked scandalous in what she was wearing and his body was responding physically to it. "I have rested well enough. I suppose it is too much trouble to inquire if I would be allowed to leave."

"Where would you go human?" She asked him. "Surely you do not believe that you are on your home world any longer?"

Ezra felt his stomach heave as what he suspected all this time was flung into his face like cold water. He wanted to throw up in protest but he could not. His fear was starting to choke him. However, he held his fear behind a mask of indifference because it was never wise to show one’s hand until the time was right. At the moment, he needed all the advantage he could get. "Where am I?" He asked, not expecting an answer.

"You are on the world we call Netjer." She responded sliding to her knees. The dress she wore loose and afforded him an ample view of her bosom as she knelt in front of him. Ezra looked away because for all intensive purposes, she was still Chris Larabee’s wife and there was something in her eyes that gave him reason to be cautious. "I brought you here for Isis."

"Isis?" Ezra looked at her blankly.

"She that killed your friend." Mary replied with no sense of remorse whatsoever. In fact, she was smiling as she said it. That had the power to frighten Ezra almost as much as everything else that was happening to him at this moment. Ezra tried not to let his grief over Vin’s death show as he accepted he news silently, waiting to see why she was here and more specifically, why he had been brought to this place.

"What do you want from me Madam?" Ezra asked coldly.

"Isis requires you as her consort." She replied, having no reason to hide anything from him. There would be nothing he could do to stop it any way.

"Consort?" Ezra began to stammer because he thought he had heard incorrectly.

"Yes," she smiled, finding his discomfiture at such a suggestion amusing. "Do you find that so amazing?" She ran a finger against his cheek and chuckled when he recoiled sharply from her touch as if scalded.

"She had a consort," Ezra replied bitterly, uncomfortable about the way Mary was eyeing him and touching him. Not all with that predatory look that had given Chris so much reason to worry but instead, she looked upon him with desire and that was even worse. "If she had not killed him, he would have happily obliged her."

"He was mate to the host," Mary said icily, grabbing his chin in her hands as she neared closer and slammed his head against the wall. Ezra winced in pain but he had suffered far worse in his time. Instinctively, he moved to react when he noticed that her guards were standing by the door, watching him closely and armed with the strange weapons she had used to defeat them and offering the unspoken threat of what would happen if he made a move against her. "You are to be consort to Goddess of All." She continued to speak, making his face her as she talked. "It is not a request."

"I am no one’s breeding animal." Ezra hissed back defiantly

"You will be ours, hers and mine." She returned just as sharply, pressing his skull against the stone wall behind him. Her fingers dug into his cheeks until Ezra could feel her nails draw blood. "You will do everything that is required of you and you will do it happily and then I may let you die quickly when it is over. Do not underestimate how much pain I am willing to make you endure."

Ezra swallowed, hating this. "Who are you?" He ventured to ask, unable to stand thinking of her as Mary any more. "You are certainly not the woman I know."

"The one you know is gone." She replied with a faint smile. "I feel her inside me you know. She is weak and frightened. I hear her whimpering each time I do anything that shows her weakness. You kind keep your women tamed and hidden away behind ridiculous clothes, you beat them into submission with your own petty insecurities when you ought to be grateful that we do not kill you for the waste of flesh that you all are."

"This is hardly the way to win me over." Ezra found himself saying. "I am afraid that there are some things about the male physique that do not respond well under threat. If I am to be consort to your Isis, Lady….?"

"Sekhmet." She introduced herself, slipping her dress over her bare shoulders and Ezra found himself staring at a sight only Chris Larabee should be viewing. Despite himself, he could not deny how magnificent she looked, how much he wanted to touch her or the arousal he was feeling as she knelt before him bare. Ezra found his gaze trapped in position over the alabaster cream of her neck and the soft, round shape of her breasts, begging his touch. Involuntarily, he felt his body react and she noticed it with almost triumphant pleasure. "Now that was not so difficult was it?" She purred and leaned towards him.

Ezra felt her mouth against his, warm and soft. Her lips were like silk and her taste was all her own. Each woman seemed to have their own flavour and Mary like Julia, was just as intoxicating. He kept his hands on the ground, pressing his palms against the stone because he did not trust himself to do anything else with them. This was Chris’ wife and he had no business being in this position. Her tongue snaked into his mouth an explored him as he felt his manhood stiffening with need. While he refused to touch her, she was held back by no such restraints. He felt her hand glide across his thigh, snaking up his hips with feather like touches before moving across his aching groin.

"Please," he somehow managed to whisper. "I can’t do this."

Her fingers moulded over his hard member, caressing it gently and inciting a surge of heat that made him groan into her mouth. He could feel her chest pressing into his body, feel her erect nipples brushing against the fabric of his shirt. He was so close to giving in to her but he was adamant that he would not. Ezra kept telling himself that this was wrong, that he would not make love to Chris Larabee’s wife, not for all the threats in the world.

Sekhmet had noticed the male’s resistance and it excited her even more that he was struggling to restrain himself even though it was very obvious he wanted her by the hard flesh she was caressing into ecstasy, despite his attempts to prevail. Her other hand slipped into the folds of her discarded clothes, seeking the device she had brought with her into the dungeon and once her hand grasped it, she moved it towards his knees. She had taken charge of his mouth, kissing him with such passion that even if his moral sensibilities did not wish to react, his body was making the decision for him. He was groaning softly, each time her palm pressed harder into his engorged manhood until he was whimpering for her to stop.

She held the derringer against his knee and fired.

Ezra screamed into her mouth as he felt the bullet tear through his knee cap, shattering bone and sending hot icicles of pain coursing through his body . She continued to kiss him even though he was caught in a red haze of pain and struggling to push her off him. After a moment, she relented and stepped away, watching him reach for his knee, bleeding profusely as he groaned in agony, almost collapsing against the floor from the pain. She stared at him for a few seconds, relishing every drop of blood and every cry he was trying hard to stifle.

With a smile, Sekhmet looked at Ezra and replied. "You taste so much better when you’re in pain."

*********

Taking Jack’s advice, Chris decided against telling Vin how he had been brought back to life. It was agreed that the tracker be told that he had been badly injured and that the sarcophagus had healed those wounds with its miraculous abilities. When Chris had openly produced that story for Vin, none of the seven seemed to disagree because it seemed a lot simpler than explaining to the man that he had been resurrected from death. Vin had enough worries on his mind at the moment without having that knowledge to burden him as well.

"I shouldn’t have lost my head like that." Vin apologised as he and Chris faced each other, taking a moment alone as the other prepared themselves for the journey they were about to take. Most of them had spare ammunition in their saddle bags and while they went outside to retrieve them and any other supplies they might need, Chris decided to let Vin in on what they were intending to do. The tracker seemed to take the news of their new acquaintances with the same laconic manner he took everything. "It’s a good thing I didn’t get myself killed." He said with a half smile and had no idea why Chris almost blanched at the thought.

"Well, don’t do it again." Chris said in a low voice, hiding what had had happened from his eyes. Seeing Vin die had been one of the worst moments in his life. Until the young man had fell to the ground, his neck broken and his eyes appearing as if they would see nothing again, Chris had not believed it possible to feel such pain over the death of a friend. It was given that he should expect to feel this way when it came to a wife or child but rarely had he felt so closely to another person than he did to Vin Tanner. In some ways, his friendship with Vin was even deeper than that with Buck, even though he had known Buck for so much longer. "I got enough trouble worrying about what we’re about to do without watching your back."

"I thought I could reach her," Vin confessed, remembering those awful few moments when he had found himself pleading Alex to remember him. "I really thought that she was in there somewhere."

"Well according to Jack and the others, she is." Chris replied, trying to let Vin know that he could not be blamed for acting the way he did. Until that moment, he had not realised how lost Mary was to him and to herself. "It’s the Goa’uld inside her that made her hurt you."

"I know," Vin said shaking his head unable to believe the extraordinary circumstances they had stumbled into. "Its just so hard to understand how something could just steal someone’s body like it was something out of a store." With a slight smile, Vin added. "It always seems to happen to us doesn’t it? The weird stuff."

"Oh yeah," Chris grinned. "I keep hoping for some perfectly ordinary bad ass outlaw to give us trouble instead of what we seem to run into."

"We’ve had our share of those too." Vin pointed out.

"We’ve had our share of everything." Chris said softly. He did not say he even though that was what he truly meant. Despite his optimistic appraisal of the situation, Chris did not feel that confident that they could retrieve Mary and Alex. They might be lucky with Ezra, that is if they had not made the gambler into one of their slaves but in truth, the best Chris could hope for was to end Mary’s suffering. He hoped when the time came, Vin was strong enough to do the same for Alex because Chris knew the doctor well enough to know that it would be a living hell for her to be trapped inside the body of a ruthless killer.

"We should get going soon." Jack approached the two men. "They’re got a head start on us, don’t want them to gain any more ground."

"What are our chances of catching up to them?" Vin asked as they started towards the gate.

"Hard to say," he answered honestly. "We don’t know much about Isis. Its not a Goa’uld we’ve run into before. From what Teal’c tells me, she’s bad news. Doesn’t like men too much."

"I got that impression." Chris remarked. "The one that got Mary went through us like we weren’t even there."

"Sekhmet." Daniel offered politely. "She was worshipped as warrior goddess. Judging by what is known of her, she does not hold men in favour except for breeding purposes. Its probably why they took your friend."

Chris stiffened at the idea. "You mean they took Ezra to…."

"Yeah," Jack said not allowing that sentence to run its course. "They need male genes to breed more of them, so they can create an army of Jaffa." He had already explained to them what Jaffa were so he need not clarify that statement any more than he had to. Besides, the whole subject was awkward enough as it is and Jack told himself to have a private chat to Daniel about what he would disclose to these men in future.

"And they picked Ezra." Chris replied, wondering how he could even find this remotely funny when it should have been enraging. "Buck would have gone with them willingly." Still, in coming to think of Mary and Sekhmet as two separate entities was making her loss much easier to bear. He hoped it would remain that way when he saw Mary face to face.

"I doubt he’d find it much fun." Sam added, Jolinahr’s memories of Sekhmet had given her insight into the Goa’uld’s behaviour which would seem to indicate that their missing friend would not be enjoying the experience. "She’s a monster. She likes causing pain especially to men. We’d better find him before they’re done."

"Jesus." Vin whispered softly.

The rest of the seven returned the cavern at that point and Jack decide that it was time to go. This entire mission had become a roller coaster ride and this was just the latest swell in the trip. He had not anticipated facing a Goa’uld System Lord and her bloodthirsty companion, let alone one who had stolen bodies from Earth’s past. However, he was glad that they had help in facing the threat that waited for them on the other side of the gate. He did not know much about Chris Larabee or his men but he could see that their bond of fellowship was binding and such loyalty was something Jack O’Neill valued highly.

He felt the same way about SG1.

"Okay," he looked at the men around him. "Important safety tip. When you go through, it will be cold on the other side. Don’t ask me why, I don’t understand and it will take Sam too long to explain it. Just take a breath and step through. Its just like walking through a door."

"Get on with it." Chris growled.

Jack gave him a look. "You’re not a people person are you?" He said sarcastically.

Chris opened his mouth to retort when Vin spoke for him. "We’re just real anxious to get going."

Jack shrugged and decided the joke segment of the preflight instructions could wait until later and turned to Daniel who was standing by the dialling device with Nathan Jackson. "All right, Daniel, let’s do it."

As everyone stepped out of the way and Daniel began dialling in the address that Nathan had seen, they watched in silent awe as the huge circle of stone came to life once more, making the ground tremble as the ring of symbols moved into place. The cavern was soon aglow with ethereal light, reminiscent of those underground pools where the reflection of water would bounce off the walls of the cave it ran through in luminescent colours. When the final glyph locked into place, the same surge of power exploded through the hollow of the ring, before the recoil turned the disarray into a shimmery wall of colour. It was beautiful and also frightening.

Jack went through first, showing the others that there was nothing to fear, followed by Teal’c. Daniel and Sam stayed behind to usher the rest of the group through the gate, empathising with their apprehension over stepping through such an unknown. Chris felt no such fears. He looked at it and marvelled secretly at the light that danced off the glistening surface and told himself that Mary was behind there and all he had to do to find her was to step through.

He was willing to walk through it if it took him to hell itself to find Mary.

TO BE CONTINUED