Tortured Soul, by Amaranth Traces

-- Chapter 8 --

I watched Sam eat her lunch. She seemed to be paying careful attention to each bite. There were a lot of eyes pointed in the direction of our table. Jack and Teal’c had also noticed, I’m sure.

We finished our lunch and left the commissary. I nearly ran into Jack’s back when he stopped suddenly in front of me.

Jack turned and muttered over his shoulder, “Get her out of here.”

I was confused until I saw Senator Kinsey coming down the hallway towards us. Gently, I took Sam’s arm. “Come on, Sam.” We headed around the corner, away from the approaching man.

Kinsey had been on General Hammond’s case for not deactivating Sam’s IDC immediately after she had been taken. Hammond had held off on making that decision for as long as he could. It had been two full weeks before Hammond had been forced to deactivate her code. If he had waited any longer, he would likely have been removed from command. There was no guarantee that whoever was appointed leader of the SGC after that would be willing to continue the search for Sam.

Kinsey claimed his delay was a poor command decision that threatened the security of the entire planet. He accused General Hammond of making the decision on emotional grounds. Problem was, he was probably right.

Since Sam had woken up, Jack and Teal’c had been running interference, trying to keep the self-serving Senator away from her. He seemed to think that she’d been compromised by the enemy.

“What’s going on?” Sam sounded confused as she followed me down the hall.

“Jack and Teal’c are heading off Kinsey again. He’s been trying to get in to talk to you since you woke up. Let’s try to put that off a while longer, okay?” I smiled at her and raised my eyebrows.

We got in the elevator, and Sam punched the button for Level 18.

“We’ll go to your office. I’m sure you have work to do, Daniel. I don’t want to keep you from it.”

“It’s nothing that can’t wait, Sam.”

“Look. If you don’t get your work done, then you’ll make yourself sick pulling all-nighters. I won’t be responsible for that.” She reached out to touch my sling. “I’ve caused you enough harm recently.” Her hand fell back to her side, and she looked at me steadily. “And I know you weren’t taking care of yourself while I was gone. Come on.”

Who had told her that? Damn it.

I followed her to my office, and we sat down, me at my desk and her in another chair. I looked at the mess on my desk. I didn’t know where to start. It had been two months since I had done anything that wasn’t related to getting Sam home.

I glanced over at Sam. She was looking at something intently, her eyes narrowed. I turned to see what it was. My computer? I turned back to her and she was looking at me.

“You know...maybe you can help me with something.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Anything, Sam.”

“I’d like to get some forms from the base’s intranet.”

I frowned at her. “Sam. You’re not supposed to be working.”

“Please, Daniel. It would really make me feel better. It’s just some forms; I’ll fill them out, and that’s it. I swear.”

I studied her for a moment. She looked very tense. I gestured at my computer. “It’s all yours. But just the forms...”

She didn’t move. She just stared at me.

“What’s wrong?”

The muscles in her jaw flexed. “Can you get them for me?”

“Uh, alright. But why?” I tilted my head at her curiously.

“Just...please?” She bit her lip and gripped the arms of her chair tightly. I had the feeling that if I said no, she’d bolt out of the room.

“Okay, Sam. Anything for you. You know that.” I turned around and logged onto the network. “What forms do you need?”

“Um...” Sam moved to stand over my shoulder, looking at the screen. She reached out and pointed at several links. “New network password, randomly generated email password, newly coded security card...everything new.”

I turned my head and looked at her, worried. There was no doubt in my mind that she’d sooner die than give her codes and passwords to Cronus. She looked back at me, obviously nervous.

Directing my attention back to the computer, I dutifully printed off all of the forms she requested. Sam collected the pages from the printer and studied them before looking at me gratefully.

“Thanks, Daniel.”

She sat down and miraculously uncovered a pen from the clutter on my desk. I watched as she started to fill out the first document.

I leaned closer to her over my desk. “Why didn’t you want to get them yourself, Sam? Are you okay?”

She just nodded, concentrating on her paperwork.

I watched her for several minutes before finally deciding to try to organize the chaos on my desk.

Sam finished her requests, and we began an excavation to find my outbox. Once the forms were safely tucked away for pick up the next day, she sat back in her chair, apparently content to watch me work.

After an hour and a half, I had uncovered the majority of my desk. Files and folders had been stacked neatly into piles categorized by urgency. I pulled out the most urgent project file and found the tablet that it referred to on the floor nearby.

Sam stood up and stretched. She groaned and clutched at her ribs. I winced in sympathy for her. She waved me back to my work as she went over to my coffee machine to start a fresh pot.

I looked up as she placed a mug next to the tablet.

“Thanks, Sam.” I leaned back in my chair and sipped the coffee. “This must be terribly boring for you.”

She shook her head, “No, I love watching you work. Besides, I can’t do anything until I hear back from them.” She waved her hand at the forms sitting in my outbox.

My eyes lingered on her paperwork, and I took another sip of coffee. I looked back at her. “Your old network passwords should still work...” I didn’t think she should be working, but I was curious as to the reasons behind her actions.

Sam looked at me over the rim of her mug. She took a sip before answering. “I don’t want to use my old passwords.”

I sat quietly, waiting for her to continue. My unspoken ‘why not’ hanging in the air.

She met my gaze for a moment and then looked around my office. Abruptly, she stood and closed my door before sitting down again. She studied me carefully before continuing.

“While I was...” her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath and began again. “They tried to make me believe that I was here, with all of you. Everything looked the same, and, for the most part, everyone acted the same.”

No wonder she had been having trouble trusting us. No wonder she shot me.

“Nothing smelled or tasted right though. They were feeding me this disgusting grey goo. Everything I ate while in the simulations tasted like that slime.” She took another sip of her coffee then waggled her mug at me. “They tried to trick me into giving them my codes, the location of the Tok’ra – anything they thought would be useful. They made me think we were under attack on a planet. And you – or at least a simulation of you – dialled Earth, and the Colonel ordered me to enter my IDC.” Sam paused, taking a shuddering breath. “I nearly did it, too, after you...the ‘other-you’ was hit by a staff blast.”

I sighed in frustration. The Goa’uld were always finding new depths of depravity.

“Something wasn’t right though. I couldn’t remember how we had gotten to that planet, or who was attacking us, or why...” She shook her head. “Thank God he didn’t realise how close he had gotten to making me do it.”

“Sam, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

She gave me a small smile and lifted her mug to her face. I watched as she inhaled deeply before taking a slow sip.

“They put me through so many simulations designed to get me to give up the information. The Table had a muddling effect on my mind. When I was on The Table, I had a hard time remembering previous simulations. I did get better at knowing when I was in a simulation, but it got harder and harder to tell what was real and what wasn’t. I think they did it on purpose, too. I’m almost positive that they even ran simulations of me in my cell being beaten.”

Sam squeezed her eyes closed, and I got up, walking around my desk to sit on the arm of her chair. I put my arm across her shoulders and hugged her against my body.

She looked up at me and smiled, then rested her head against my arm. “They tried everything. They made me think so many times that I was being rescued, that it had all been a dream, that it was some new training program that the SGC was testing. And every simulation was so real...” Her voice trailed off, and she looked up at me again.

Sam took another deliberate sip of coffee, and her eyes wandered to my sling. She winced. “This is really real, isn’t it?”

I smiled softly at her and nodded.

She shook her head and put her mug on my desk. “I’m so sorry, Daniel. I can’t believe I shot you.”

“It’s okay, Sam.”

“God! I could have killed you!” She held her head in her hands.

“Sam, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I know you’d never intentionally hurt me.”

She looked up at me. The tears pooling in her eyes surely mirrored my own. Sam wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face into my chest. I held her as she cried.

 Previous   |    Next