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[ Chapter 1: A Mission | Chapter 2: A Shocking Revelation | Chapter 3: Explanations | Chapter 4: Shopping and Travel | Chapter 5: Tau'ri Food - and a Phone Call | Chapter 6: Picking Up the Rings | Chapter 7: The Journey Begins | Chapter 8: Playing Tourists | Chapter 9: Going to the ZOO | Chapter 10: Together | Chapter 11: Getting Drunk | Chapter 12: Decisions | Chapter 13: A Movie - and Information from Home | Chapter 14: France | Chapter 15: Rome | Chapter 16: Egypt | Chapter 17: Looking at Ruins | Chapter 18: Goa'uld Artifacts | Chapter 19: A Costume Party | Chapter 20: A Goa'uld from the Past | Chapter 21: Conspiracy | Chapter 22: Escape | Chapter 23: Home ]


22: Escape

Summary:

Sam and Martouf/Lantash manage to escape from the Goa'uld Petbe's lair.

Sam and Martouf/Lantash were thrown into a room full of crates, boxes, and sacks. It was obviously a storage room. Two of the human guards took position inside the room, on either side of the door.

Lantash picked himself up from the floor, sitting up against one of the crates, and massaged his shoulder for a moment, then rotated it, checking it worked as it should. Sam got up as well, and hurried to him, kneeling down beside him. “Lantash! How is your shoulder?”

He threw a look at the guards, then made a decision, and hid the distortion in his voice. “Do not worry, Samantha. The pain is diminishing, and there is no lasting damage. It will be healed shortly.”

Sam looked relieved. “I’m very happy to hear that.” They sat for a moment, then her gaze fell on something on the floor, near an open crate. “Do you see that?” She whispered.

“What?” Lantash answered, keeping his voice just as low.

“A hara’kesh, I think. I have an idea... please play along?” She pretended to look at her hand. “Where is my ring?” She exclaimed, then looked at the hara’kesh. “Ah, there!” She hurried to it, picking it up. Smiling, she put it on.

“What ring is that?” Lantash asked, suspiciously. He quickly got up and walked to her. “I thought I noticed it earlier. Now I am certain - and I am sure I never saw it before. Who gave it you?” he demanded.

“Uh... that’s none of your business,” Sam told him, realizing what he was playing at. It might even work, if the guards fell for it.

“It’s from that damn Colonel, isn’t it? He’s much too old for you! I told you to stop pining for him. Give the ring to me. Give it to me! Now!” He grabbed her hand and attempted to get her to open it, and take off the ring.

“No, never! It was a gift, for me!” She tried pushing him away.

Lantash was much stronger than her, and grabbed her hands. He pressed her to him, holding her still as he pried her hand open, then pulled off the ring.

Of course, Sam was only pretending to fight him, and he was taking care not to hurt her as he held her.

The two guards, however, clearly fell for it, and were laughing.

“So... she’s getting a little on the side, eh?” One of the guards snickered.

“You should whoop her ass. That’s what I always say - women needs that from time to time. Don’t let her make a fool of you!” the other guard told Lantash.

Lantash looked at the ring for a few moments, then made as if he pocketed it. “Oh, I assure you, I will make sure to punish those that needs punishing.”

“Give it back to me. Now!” Sam yelled, again pretending she was fighting him. “Please!” She feigned that she began to cry, since Lantash was angry at her.

The guard that had spoken last, stepped over to them. “Let me take care of that little wildcat for you.” He leered at Sam, and pulled at her.

That was the chance Lantash had been waiting for. He immediately let go of Sam, and flared his eyes, as he raised his hand with the hara’kesh on. Both Sam and the guard stumbled, and Sam fell, slipping out of the grasp of the man.

Both of the guards gasped loudly in shock, and before either of them could react, Lantash had grabbed the nearest, wrestled his weapon from him, and thrown it towards Sam. He activated the hara’kesh and a beam hit the guard on the forehead.

The other guard ran to his friend’s aid, but he made the error of ignoring Sam. The gun had slipped away from her in the commotion, but she did not need a weapon to be a dangerous fighter.

She swept out with her leg, and felled the guard, then was over him before he had time to react.

Lantash had used the hara’kesh to confuse the other guard, who currently sat, staring blankly out into the room. Lantash now went to the guard Sam was sitting on - and having an armlock on.

He grinned, as he kneeled beside them. “Well done, my love. I knew you were dangerous.” He quickly used the hara’kesh on the guard, making him confused as well. “I have made both of them forget anything that has happened in the last ten minutes or so. In addition, they will be confused for several more minutes, so we should make our escape.”

“Yes, I agree... and you’re a pretty dangerous fighter too. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

“I hope I’m much more than that.” Lantash looked at her with a glint in his eyes. He picked up both guns, as he walked to the door.

“Nice!” Sam said, looking into the open crate near where she had found the hara’kesh. “This is full of Goa’uld stuff... including this!” She picked up a hand device and threw it to Lantash.

“That will come in handy.” Lantash smiled, pocketing the hara kesh and putting the ribbon device on instead. “Take this.” He threw one of the guns to Sam, then hid the other in a pocket.

The door opened suddenly, and two guards barged in, drawn by the commotion.

“What is going on...” the first man started.

Neither of them got any further, as Lantash hit both of them with a shockwave from the hand device, throwing them against the wall. They slid down to the ground, stunned.



Sam and Martouf/Lantash fled the room, locking it behind them. They hurried through the corridor, running in the direction of the stairs they had been lead down when they arrived. Fortunately, they did not meet anyone. However, they were underground, in a basement of the large manor the Goa’uld had purchased. There was no way out, except by going up one floor.

Sam had stolen a cell phone from one of the guards, and she now tried it. “Damn, no reception!”

“Probably because we’re underground,” Lantash guessed.

“Yes, and most likely far out in the countryside as well.” Sam sighed. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“I agree, but that may not be easy. When we were taken into the building, there appeared to be many guards on the ground floor.”

“I think I noticed another set of stairs at the other end of the corridor... back near the store room where we were locked up. That might lead to a less heavily guarded section.”

“Possibly. We should attempt it.”

They returned to the small room near the larger storage room they had been imprisoned in earlier. They now noticed that there were a number of small rooms nearby, containing wine, and various food stuffs.

“Yes! If we’re lucky, those stairs lead to the kitchen,” Sam said.

They walked up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible, which was not an easy thing, since these stairs were not stone like the others, but made of old, creaky wood.

No one heard them, though, and they silently opened the door at the top, and snuck out into what turned out to be a small storage room behind the kitchen. They could hear someone working in the kitchen, so they waited for maybe ten minutes, until all became quiet.

They hurried through the kitchen - from the food cooking on the stove, it was obvious those working there would be back momentarily.

This wing of the castle was obviously only used by servants, and none of them were in the corridor or hallway just outside, so Sam and Martouf/Lantash made their way to a wide staircase, and up to the first floor.

“We should find a place to hide, and call for assistance,” Martouf said, in a low voice.

“Agreed. I suggest we go up one more floor.” She pointed to the stairs. “If I remember correctly, the office we were taken to were on this floor, so I would guess that’s where the Goa’uld... Petbe, is?”

“Possibly. You are correct about the location of the office, though. I also suspect Petbe is not the only Goa’uld here. I was able to hear some of the conversation when he spoke on the telephone... I believe I caught the name ‘Mehen’. He was Ra’s First Minister, but with his master dead, he lost all influence. He hates the Tau’ri... unfortunately, it sounded as if he was coming here.” He looked speculative. “I believe I have seen him at Am-heh’s court... he may have been the one in charge of the operation here, before Petbe arrived.”

“Great. I’m betting he’s not pleased with having been demoted!” Sam groaned. “Okay, let’s hope we’re not running into either of them. Let’s find a place to hide, call for backup, and then I am going to see if I can find a computer or something and hack into. It would be great if we could get a list of everyone involved in the conspiracy.”

“You should not go alone, Samantha. Together we can...”

“The Goa’uld can sense you. Yeah, I know they can sense me too, but not unless they get way closer than I’m going to let them, so this is the logical way of doing things.”



They managed to find a small room that looked to be in a deserted part of the large castle. There they called Stargate Command, using the cell phone Sam had swiped earlier. They informed Hammond that Martouf/Lantash had recognized Petbe, and that he had heard another Goa’uld mentioned, Mehen. They would probably both be here soon.

Hammond promised to contact British authorities and get them to send backup as quickly as possible, and told Sam and Martouf/Lantash to remain hidden until then.

After hanging up, Sam gave the cell phone to Martouf/Lantash, kissed them, and snuck off to look for a computer with information about the conspiracy. Martouf and Lantash were not exactly happy to let her sneak off on her own, even though they knew she was a skilled warrior, but they had to admit she was more likely to avoid being detected.

They sat down to wait, hoping dearly she would return safely.



It was about an hour and a half later, when Sam returned to the room Martouf and Lantash were hiding in. Hearing someone approach, they had silently prepared to fight, and stood at the ready with the hand device. Seeing it was Sam, they relaxed and smiled.

“Samantha,” Lantash whispered, as he threw his arms around her. “We are relieved you are safely back with us.”

She hugged him back. “I’m glad to be back. I almost ran into some of the guards going back here. They’ve discovered we’ve escaped, so the whole place is upside down with activity.”

“Yes, I heard the commotion.”

“I managed to get this.” Sam smiled, holding up a disk. “It’s a backup of their entire database. There’s a list of everyone involved. Their encryption was laughable!”

“Well done, Samantha!”

Not long after, they heard shouting outside, followed by gunfire.

“I think that’s our backup,” Sam observed.



It took little time for the British Special Air Service to overpower and catch the two Goa’uld and their human henchmen.

They had found Sam and Martouf/Lantash when they had combed the building, and they had identified themselves as Major Samantha Carter of the US Air Force, and Civilian Advisors Martouf and Lantash, also with the US Air Force installation at Cheyenne Mountain.

A couple of the human underlings had attempted to destroy the computer systems, in order to stop anyone from gaining access to the database, but fortunately, Sam had made a copy shortly before, so they had all the information needed to unravel the conspiracy.

The Goa’uld Petbe had also been collecting Goa’uld artefacts and tablets that had been found on Earth, in order to send to his master. These things were all transported back to Stargate Command, together with Petbe, Mehen, and their human underlings.





Chapter 23: Home