Annika remained limp, pretending to sleep. Being in the metal encased arms she had a sense of safety. Which totally confused her considering the Jaffa who carried her was Ba’al’s second in command. He was surprisingly tender when he placed her on the bed and she could have sworn she felt the lightest brush of his hand across her cheek. She waited until the echo of his boots told her he was walking away, then opened her eyes into the tiniest of slits, not able to resist getting a reading of this gentle giant’s aura. The colors that swirled around his retreating back were a hazy mass of contradiction. She filed it away for later, right now she had more important things to worry about than a strange aura.

The door swooshed shut and a little unsteady from the aftereffects of the healing device, she tottered directly to the secret compartment they knew was there from when they were hunting the zatarc intel. After tapping in the sequence of glyphs the golden drawer silently slid open, and she wasted no time rummaging through the jewels and finery, hoping that the key or the mirror attachment was inside. She should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. "They’re not here." She shut the drawer with a sigh and quickly strode over to the air vent.

"Then we start a room sweep." Jack was working the grate free. "Nice play, by the way."

"I figured there have to be some perks to being Ba’al’s snitch advisor." Annika helped from the outside. "I’ve got it, just give a push."

The colonel applied pressure and Annika started to lower the metal plate. Before she could bend down, Jack’s hand reached out to cup her chin. He tilted her head towards him, examining not only her now healed bruises but her expression. "Casper, you had me worried there for a while. I don’t need anymore grey hairs ya’ know."

"They make you look distinguished," she quipped lightly. She tried to pull away, however Jack wouldn’t let her go. She sighed, realizing that her CO wasn’t going to let her off the hook. "I’m fine. The healing device fixed me up. I’m just a tad tired."

Jack was sure that was quite the understatement, she was still looking a bit pasty to him, however he released her. He was about to lower himself into the room, when the quiet beep of the door sequence code echoed in the air. "Someone’s coming," he whispered, urgently gesturing for Annika to replace the grate.

She only just managed to shove the plate back in place as the doors parted and Ba’al strode into the room.

He was surprised to see her on her feet. "You were ordered to rest, My Beloved."

Heart in her throat at the close call, Annika lowered her eyes in what she hoped was subservience, frantically wracking her brain for a reason for the disobedience. The blood staining her gown gave her inspiration. "Forgive me, My Lord. I felt so defiled by what the Jaffa had done to me, that I couldn’t rest without first cleansing myself." She took a hesitant step closer to a side door that led to the bath chamber.

Ba’al gave a nod of understanding. "I shall summon one of the slaves to assist you."

"That’s not necessary, My Lord," she said, hastily taking another few steps. Inwardly cursed when her legs decided to act like jell-o, and she stumbled against the wall.

The Goa’uld was by her side in three long strides. "Your constant fight for independence is foolish. The healing device is draining on the body. It is not safe to leave you alone."

"Please, My lord, I do not trust them." She added a touch of fear to her voice. "Not after today."

"Then I shall assist you," he decided, leading her fully into the bath chamber. "It has been some time since we have bathed together."

"You must have more pressing needs than to watch over me, My Lord." This was not turning out the way she had planned. The idea had been to get Ba’al out of the room, not take a frolic in the tub with Lord Snakiness.

"I assure you I do have a pressing need, and it does involve you." The Goa’uld tugged her back against him.

Annika caught the innuendo, couldn’t miss it in fact, because of what was now pressing against the small of her back.

Ba’al frowned in irritation at how rigid she became. His voice took on that duality of his race and his eyes glowed. "Come now, My Beloved, surely we are beyond such coyness."

"You wished me to rest, My Lord." She pulled away from him under the guise of activating the controls to fill the sunken bath.

"And you wished to bathe. Your exhaustion cannot be too pronounced." Ba’al shrugged from his outer robe, letting it drop to the floor. "Do not make this difficult. You have suffered enough for one day."

The warning in his tone was clear. She drew a calming breath. This had always been a possibility, she just didn’t think it would happen within the first five minutes. Very subtly she began to block her bond with Daniel, hoping that he wouldn’t notice until it was too late for him to insert his will and stop her. If she had to do this then she couldn’t do it knowing that Daniel would feel every humiliating moment. Out loud she said, "I am not trying to be difficult. I only fear in my weakened state I shall not be able to please you."

"This new found concern for your duty is a pleasant change," he murmured, removing his boots. "One that shall be rewarded."

"You are too kind, My Lord." Annika almost choked on the words. Dreading what this so called reward would be she turned to face him. He pulled at the tie holding his shirt in place. It was old-fashioned by her standards, without buttons or zips, instead a ribbon of cloth tied at his side gave the shirt its snug fit. As it fell open across his body something caught her eye. Besides the thick gold chain around his neck that held the ruby amulet he wore on the outside of his robes, there was a thin leather cord, the pendant it was holding hidden beneath the large ruby. If that was what she thought it was, then having to play Mata Hari would be easier with a clear purpose to achieve. She approached him in what she hoped was a sashay rather than a nervous totter. "Let me help you, My Lord."

Jack shimmied back from the vent opening then activated the radio of his earpiece. "Kids, we need a distraction ASAP. Anyone near anything that would raise a ship wide alarm?"

There was a few seconds pause and Teal‘c responded. "I am, O’Neill. Do you require damage?"

"Don’t care if you blow up the engine. Just need it yesterday."

"Roger that."

Jack scooted back to the vent to see Annika strip Ba’al’s shirt. Over Ba’al’s shoulder she lifted her eyes to the vent, and her hand lifted in a halt signal. He frowned. They had discussed this; any signs of Balls becoming amorous and Jack would do everything in his power to stop it. He trusted that Annika had a pretty darned good reason for asking him to wait. Though the bile was swirling around in his stomach, he quietly spoke into the radio again. "T, hang ten for now."

The Jaffa’s voice was concerned. "Are you sure, O’Neill?"

"No, but Casper is." Troubled eyes watched Ba’al paw at his friend. "Stay on standby."

A  A  A

Annika didn’t reply to Ba’al’s promise, wasn’t sure that her vocal chords would work other than to give a howl of abhorrence. She ran her palms down his chest, then fingered the ruby pendent, shifting it slightly to see what was beneath. Barely stopped the sigh of relief at seeing the simple wrought iron key with a flat milky stone imbedded in the head. He let her remove the golden jewelry, but when she touched the key his hand stopped her.

"You know better than to remove that, My Beloved." Though it purred from his lips, there was an edge to his tone.

Annika found her voice, hoped that the rasp that came out would be interpreted as husky desire. "Please, the metal is sharp against my skin." She lifted her eyes to his, then moved down to his mouth. Her tongue slipped out to moisten her lips. "I wish to feel you without any barriers between us."

The deliberately seductive move fired his loins and he hauled her against him, his lips closing over hers. She responded willing to his touch, her tongue delving into his mouth. Never had she so freely kissed him with such passion… He felt her squirm as the key around his neck made contact with her. The components of the metal kept it cold to the touch no matter how much it was warmed by his body and clothes. Removing it was a small concession to give if it kept her so wonderfully responsive.

She couldn’t help the flinch when the key pressed against her. Even through the material of her gown, it was icy. Revolted by her actions, she focused on trying to work out a way to remove the key without Ba’al realizing it. Tried to ignore the Goa’uld’s hand as it pushed aside the strip of cloth covering her upper body to cup her breast. The shudder that ripped through her Ba’al mistakenly took for desire. His hand slowly moved to the cleft of her cleavage, then to her surprise closed over the key nestled between their bodies and lifted it over his head. A wide smile spread across her face. "Thank you, My Lord."

Annika leaned against him, the movement disguising the reason for her shift of weight to one foot. Her other foot bent up behind her, her toes catching the dangling key between them and she lowered it to the floor, hiding it with the length of her foot.

A low moan of sheer lust expelled from Ba’al’s throat as her soft pliant body melded to his. Tried to fight down the urge to plunge his aching shaft into her right then. He’d been waiting long years for this moment, to have her surrender completely to him, and he had no intention of rushing. He peeled the gossamer length of material that covered her torso from her, taking his time to relish in the softness of her skin, enjoying the ripples of desire that coursed through her.

"You blush." Ba’al was delighted by the idea. "Such modesty is becoming." He picked up her hand and placed it against his crotch.

Annika had to force herself not to do some serious damage to the hard appendage pulsing in her grasp. His hiss of bliss had a modicum of discomfort as he swelled more beneath the constricting material. "Shall I relieve your ache, My Lord?" she asked coyly, using one finger to stroke him.

"Oh, I insist that you do," he replied with a slight catch in his voice.

"It’ll be easier without these." She traced her finger around the waistband of his trousers.

He gave a grunt of acknowledgement, more focused on the burning trail she was leaving across his abdomen than on the action of her other hand.

"You know what I want, My Beloved."

He shifted forward slightly and Annika could smell the sharp muskiness of the manhood that was protruding in front of her face. Sucked in a deep breath and very gradually began to move closer. I can do this…I have to do this. They had the key, but still had no idea where the mirror had been moved to. She had to keep up the pretense no matter what. She blew out the breath, which Ba’al took to be an act of seduction, prayed that she wouldn’t gag and reluctantly opened her mouth.

A  A  A

Daniel and Charlie were one level down, systematically checking every room for any sign of the quantum mirror. The floor was basically deserted, the level having been converted to guest quarters for the summit and the individual rooms were already immaculately set up for the Goa’uld that would arrive in the morning.

Making doubly sure there was no one else about, Charlie hesitantly spoke. "That was really impressive. You even got Ba’al’s permission to search the ship."

"Couldn’t have done it without all the intel you provided." Daniel flipped the compliment back to the young commander. "You understand Goa’uld?"

Charlie nodded. "Necessary evil if we wanted to eavesdrop on the Jaffa. It’s amazing how loose their tongues are when they think no one around understands them."

"I’m just glad none of the people understood what I was saying." Daniel wore a wry grin, referring to the slaves who’d been lined up ready to be executed. "They despised me enough without knowing the details." He didn’t need Annika’s extrasensory perception to feel how much they loathed him, it had been tangible the moment he entered the room. He hoped that Annika had been too out of it to feel it as well.

"I’m sorry," Charlie blurted out.

"For what?" Blue eyes were surprised.

"For hating you…him, for all these years…" He gave his head a shameful shake. "One of our plans in the works was to take you out of the picture…"

"Charlie, you made a judgment on the information you were given, what the other me purposefully made you believe." He gave the guilt-ridden man’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. "If I were in your shoes I probably would have made the same-" He broke off as he distinctly felt a veil descend over the bond Annika and he shared and his gut knotted in fear. "Check in with Jack, something’s wrong."

Daniel was already scanning the room for anything that would create an immediate ship wide alarm. It took less than a second for him to determine that there was nothing. His mind jumped back to the room next door and then his feet were moving in long strides. "Control panel, under repair."

Charlie was hot on his heels, though Daniel was barely cognizant of that fact. He wouldn’t let his mind wonder why the diversion was needed, he just focused entirely on getting to that wall panel and causing the biggest damned diversion he could to save his wife. The panel had struck him as odd a few minutes ago. It had been left unattended, open with the sensitive crystals inside exposed. Ba’al ran a tight ship and leaving a job half done, especially in this converted level, was not something the pedantic Goa’uld would allow. Daniel had dismissed the anomaly, as it hadn’t had anything to do with their search for the mirror.

Jabbing his hand at the door glyph Daniel didn’t slow. Not even when he heard Charlie’s hurried words, "Teal’c’s got a plan," did he slow his momentum. "So we’re plan B." He charged through the door, only to crash into a body crouched by the open panel.

Both Daniel and the person ended sprawled on the floor. For a stunned second Daniel could only gape at the woman, recognizing her instantly. She looked equally shocked with a split second of panic before her eyes flashed yellow.

"You clumsy fool!"

Daniel scrambled to his feet. "I humbly beg you forgiveness, My Lord. I did not realize this room was occupied."

She rose from the floor with as much dignity as she could. "How dare you come barging in here unannounced!"

The archaeologist ducked his head down, an automatic reaction to partly hide his face even though this version of the Goa’uld did not know him as Daniel Jackson of SG-1. "I’m conducting a search under Lord Ba’al’s orders."

"Searching for what?"

"You dare question your god?" she demanded haughtily, eyes blazing.

"Lord Ba’al is my god." As he uttered the words he never thought would leave his lips, he peeked beyond the Goa’uld’s robes to see a small device jerry-rigged to one of the crystals. "You are not."

Her demeanor instantly changed, her cat-like eyes darkening, her lips turning up in a seductive smile. "Oh, but I am your god," she purred leaning slightly towards him. "I am the mother of all gods, and you shall serve only me."

A soft rose scent tickled his nostrils as he breathed in. He fought back the urge to sneeze in her face, concentrated on un-focusing his eyes to give the illusion of being under her spell, making his voice vacant. "I serve only you, Blessed Hathor." Over her shoulder he saw Charlie, who had remained unnoticed by the Goa’uld, gripping a jeweled scepter ready to whack her over the head. Daniel knew how potent Hathor’s cocktail of pheromones were, how quickly they took control of the mind and how long it took to snap out if it. "Charlie, no! Keep away from her!" Daniel tried to lunge passed the Goa’uld to shove Charlie out of her range, but it was too late. The young man, who had taken a few deep silent breaths to prepare himself, had already sucked in the pheromones floating in the air and he stood stock still, eyes glazed, the scepter still poised to strike.

Quicker than lightning, Hathor’s arm shot out, the hand device she wore glowing red shooting an energy pulse at Daniel. The shock wave hit him side on and Daniel was suddenly flying through the air on the crest of the painful invisible force. He slammed into the wall, the impact knocking the wind out of him as he slid to the floor.

Hathor approached, her face a mask of false regret. "It is a pity you are immune to my intoxication. Such a beautiful specimen of your species, you would have made a fine addition to my growing number of worshippers." The jewel nestled in her palm glowed once more. "However, I cannot have you running off to tell Ba’al what you have seen."

The golden beam shot out from the blood red stone, impacting the forehead of the dazed archaeologist.

A  A  A

Sam, silently walking back down the corridor, contemplated how she could get rid of her Jaffa escorts. With Huey and Dewy sticking to her like a burr in fur she wouldn’t be able to conduct any kind of search, let a lone make it to the rendezvous point. She’d derived that given the speediness of the lifts both in the base and on the ship, that it was impossible for Teal’c to have kept up with her transportation, which meant she was on her own for now. Stepping into the elevator she reached out to the bottom button only to have First Lackey slap her hand away, lighting up the glyph for the third level. "I’ve still got work to do on the base," she protested.

"Your dedication to your duties is admirable," he sneered. "But first you will be implanted with the tracking device as Lord Ba’al requested."

"Implanted?" The major’s heart skipped a beat. "No, no, no, Lord Ba’al said wear a tracker, not be implanted."

"It amounts to the same thing." Gauntleted hands once again clamped around her biceps.

"Like hell it does!" She bucked against the iron grip.

The doors slid open on the medical lab level and the Jaffa, impassive to the loud arguments the struggling woman put forth, simply lifted her off her feet and carried her.

Sam tried to break away, kicking at the chain-mailed legs with all her strength. She couldn’t let herself be implanted. She needed to be able to move freely around the ship and base, especially tomorrow when the crux of their plan was to take place. Her boot lashed out again and she felt a satisfying thrill at the grunt of pain from one of her captors. It was short lived as he bent down, easily capturing both her legs in his strong arms and the Jaffa carried her lengthways into a small laboratory. She doubled her efforts to break free, thrashing against the steely grips. "Lord Ba’al did not order this! He won’t stand for you misinterpreting his words."

"On the contrary, he will reward me for my initiative." First Lackey plonked her roughly on the surgical bed in the middle of the room, while the second warrior managed to hit the glyph to close the doors sealing them inside with one hand, and maintaining his vice hold around her legs with the other. Pinning her down, First Lackey spoke over his shoulder to the room’s other occupant who, unperturbed by their noisy arrival, was leaning over a microscope in the far corner. "This one is to be implanted with a subcutaneous tracking device."

The doctor glanced up from the eyepiece, taking in the blonde wrestling with the two warriors, then resumed her study of the slide under the magnifying light. "I’ll be with you in a moment."

"No, now," First Lackey barked.

"These results are time sensitive. If I stop now it’s a weeks work down the drain," she replied calmly. "I don’t think Our Lord would appreciate having to wait another seven days for the data."

"Be quick about it then," he ordered, adjusting his hold on Sam.

Still fighting, Sam craned her head around. She knew that voice! "Please, don’t let them do this."

The petite doctor didn’t acknowledge her plea, just neatly completed the notes she was writing, then carefully placed the slide in its storage container.

Sam watched helplessly as the woman who was one of her closest friends in the true timeline, opened a cupboard of sterile implements and withdrew a large needle and a vial filled with tiny black dots. She didn’t sense any symbiotes beyond the two prim’ta in the Jaffa, which meant that the doctor hadn’t been made into a host. The chance that the doctor was one of the spies Charlie had placed in the ship was so slim it might as well be anorexic, however Sam was running out of options fast. As pitiful as her plan B was, it was all she had. She gave a frustrated huff. "This whole friggin’ day has gone pear shaped. I was only doing my damned job and this is how I’m repaid? Becoming a lab rat because this Jaffa wants to score brownie points."

Caramel eyes barely flicked towards her before concentrating on inserting one of the microchips into the syringe. "Sometimes it doesn’t pay to get out of bed." There was a sarcastic edge to her voice, humoring her unwillingly patient.

"Please, Janet," Sam implored purposefully using her name, hoping that even if she wasn’t one of Charlie’s people that she may reach the woman she knew her friend to be. "Ba’al didn’t order this."

"Who am I to believe?" Janet sounded irritated as she selected a second vial, this one filled with a thick pale green liquid, like she’d heard the story a thousand times before. "The faithful servants of Our Lord or a slave?"

The coldness in her voice made Sam flinch. A hard knot settled in her stomach. Janet hadn’t acknowledged the codeword Charlie had given her. There would be no help from her. No way to escape.

Janet tapped the glass of the syringe to clear any air bubbles and stepped close. "Now hold still. It will be worse for you if you don’t." Swabbing Sam’s arm, caramel eyes locked on blue begging ones. "It’ll only hurt for a second."