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 Karma

Chapter 10

Three days had passed; three days of utter and complete hell for Mitchell, not to mention the rest of SG-7. Having delivered threats to the Tok’ra that needed no repeating, the Tok’ra had quickly put out feelers throughout their spy network, trying desperately to find out where Jessica was at, to no avail. They called in favors; eyes watched all the local slave auctions, inquiries were made as to any bounties being collected for the Tau’ri; ears listened for the inevitable bragging of the Goa’uld at capturing one of the fabled SGC members. SG-1 had gone off world, meeting with contacts, trying to turn up some kind of lead. There was no news. They knew better; if Jessie had been kidnapped by any of the "usual" suspects, something would have shown up by now. The fact that there was silence did not bode well. At the beginning of the third day, Mitchell couldn’t take it anymore. He showed up in General Hammond’s office first thing that morning.

"Colonel Mitchell?"

"General, I’m requesting permission to go to Nanda."

General Hammond frowned. "Why, Colonel?"

"Because of Brojorn’s psychic abilities, Sir. If anyone might be able to locate Jessie, it would be him."

Hammond looked at Mitchell for a minute, considering his request. "Granted. But Colonel…"

"Yes Sir?"

"No threats. If he’s willing to help voluntarily, that’s fine. Otherwise, you’ll have to leave it be. We can’t risk turning this into an interplanetary issue."

The tense line of Mitchell’s jaw belied the calmness of his response. "Yes, Sir." ‘I’ll choke it out of the bastard if I have to,’ he thought to himself, but spared General Hammond that reply.

Hammond insisted that Pisano and Spencer go along as well, not wanting to risk another unforeseen incident. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching as SG-7, one member short, disappeared into the shimmering wormhole. He said a silent prayer, hoping that someone was listening, somewhere.

It hadn’t taken Kaitsenko any time at all to get down to business. The pain in her ribs had just subsided to a dull ache before he returned. Eyeing him warily as he opened the bars, Kaitsenko walked in and grabbed her upper arm, yanking her from the chair. She had no doubt there would be bruises from where his fingers were digging into her flesh. She had to damn near jog to keep up with him; the couple of times she stumbled, he just kept walking, dragging her along until she regained her footing. The room they finally entered reminded her of the temple she had been studying when they had kidnapped her. Engravings covered all the walls, and it wasn’t a small room.

"In these writings there is a description of a temple, and its location. I want that information."

Jessie pulled her arm out of his grasp, rubbing her hand over the area, trying to get the blood flowing again. The linguist in her made her forget her fear and annoyance for a moment, though, as her eyes scanned the wall. It was only for a moment; a sinking feeling in her stomach soon took up residence as she got a closer look at the symbols. One, two, three, four…

She swallowed hard. "This is going to take a while."

Kaitsenko struck before she had a chance to explain, his hand connecting with her jaw as he backhanded her, hard. "For your sake, you better pray it doesn’t take you long."

Prick. She held her tongue, but her eyes conveyed her thoughts just as clearly as if she had said them out loud.

Without another word, he turned and left her alone. Letting out a shaky breath, Jessie considered her options, which were few and far between at the moment. She had no idea where she was at, whether it was the same planet or elsewhere. Was there a Stargate, or had they ringed here? It was fairly quiet, unlike the hustle and bustle she had witnessed before—she didn’t think it was the same location. Besides Thomon, she had seen at least four other of Kaitsenko’s minions milling about. Even if she had a stroke of luck and was able to bring Kaitsenko down, there were five others to deal with. Not good odds at all. Sure, she had been trained, but besides P3X-973 and her experience with the Amazon, she hadn’t gone through "real" hand-to-hand combat. Six against one, and no back up? That wasn’t an option. Yet. She glanced at the doorway Kaitsenko had disappeared through. Yep, there was a guard standing on the other side. Looking around the room she was in, she saw no other exit. Okay, that didn’t mean there wasn’t one; maybe there was one hidden. Turning her attention back to the engravings, she hoped maybe an answer lay within.

Quickly slipping into the zone, she began to work diligently, doing her best to decipher the inscriptions. There were at least four different languages woven throughout the text, including Ancient, which wasn’t her strong suit to begin with. Her eyes narrowed. Hmmmm. That was definitely Tu-mata-uenga there. Her fingers skimmed the stone, her eyes not far behind. Tu-ka-riri. Okay, that was ‘the angry’, if she remembered correctly. She continued on. Three lines down, Tu-whakaheke-tangata. Oh hell, what was that one? Think, damn it. Demoter…demoter of personages. She continued down the wall, looking, looking. It had to be here somewhere. Started on the next wall. There. Tu-kai-taua. The destroyer of armies. Walking back to the first wall, she took a good look at it. Looked at it incredulously when she realized the pattern. Four words, one language. Next four, second language, next four third, next four fourth. Started back with the first, repeating the pattern. On all four walls. Gave a whole new meaning to four by four. She’d give just about anything right now to have Daniel and Casey helping her. A wave of despair hit her, bringing tears to her eyes, which she blinked away just as quickly as they had come. No time for that crap, not now. Taking her notepad and pencil from her pocket, she began taking notes. Every once in a while she would unconsciously flex her shoulders, trying to ease the burning sensation that was becoming more persistent where the whip had cut her skin.

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