Beyond the Iris: A Stargate Story

Chapter 22

"You must not know how torture works." He loosened his grip on my hair and moved his fingers down to twirl at the base of my neck, gentle and taunting.

"Do what you want." I snarled and he chuckled menacing and cruel.

I felt the strength of his grip force my face into the chamber and my vision locked into the blinding light. There was a full throbbing as my mind was soaking the information in like a newborn babe being force fed coding. I had no idea what any of it meant, but I knew it. I had it stored now, projected into my mind's eye and the feeling thrummed in me. It was delicious and intoxicating, it was deceitful and draining, but it would be my death before humanity.

Once it was over I dropped to my knees, exhaustion rippling over me but that didn't stop him from yanking me back up by my hair again. "Where is Atlantis?"
"Eat shit," I cackled and felt blood starting to drip from my nose, no doubt the start of an early brain hemorrhage if I was lucky.

With his free hand he tilted my chin up and smirked, "you are more feisty than memory serves. I just assumed you'd crumble easily." He ran his thumb over my bruising caked lips and pushed down on the cracked cut he had created, sending a sharp intake of breath through me. Then moved down to my neck and squeezed applying more and more pressure with every word as he smashed my body into the black wall. "It'll be fun hunting down Jackson and having SG-1 watch as I slowly drive him just as insane as you soon. He'll be looking at you, begging you to tell me, and you'll do what you think is best for the Tauri until something sensible snaps in you, or you snap all together." He released his grip on me and folded his arms across his chest while I skimmed to the floor like a rag doll clutching at my neck and gasping for air.

"You'd have to find him first." I wheezed out.

"I'm far more resourceful than you think, and if memory serves correctly your clock is ticking."

Jack

When we made it to the gate there was already an SG team and a pair of local authorities monitoring the area. I recognized Erickson sitting against a boulder, arm bloodied with a clear gunshot wound in his shoulder. He was speaking with one of the local guards when his head shot back up to me. You could see it in his face there, regret. It ate at him, his stomach churning and aching more than the open hole that had shredded ligaments in his shoulder.

"Want to tell me what happened lieutenant?" I walked up to him as Carter went to the DHD and Daniel spoke with the two guards from the local village.

"We came through the gate and Sgt Carlson just pulled out his weapon and shot the other members of our team. I ran to get aid, but was fired on and I crashed into a tree. I woke up, and was stumbling around when I ran into those two," he pointed to the two locals.

"They were coming up here to see if Owens and the team were lost for the summit. I filled them in on what I saw and dialed the SGC." His eyes were dull and he stood up to meet me. "I, I should have stayed. Should have tried."

"Tried to do what Erickson? Fight an armed teammate? At that point there was nothing you could do." I looked around the space. "Do you know where they went?"

"Who?"

Daniel swung his head in our direction. "Who do you think?" He seethed. "Who is missing?"

"Owens?"

"Yes!" Daniel screamed through the clearing. "Yes! Where the fuck did they go?"

"He probably killed her too! I heard her screaming echoing through the woods and didn't stay to see." He snapped back. Daniel's nostrils flared as he grabbed Erickson by the collar of uniform running like a bull and thrust him against a nearby tree.

"If there is even a scratch on her I will put a matching bullet hole through your other side." He lifted the lieutenant smashing him into the tree once more with Erickson whimpering at the impact on his gunshot wound each time. "Do you understand me?" Erickson sniffled and nodded fervently.

"Let him go," I shook my head and looked over at Teal'c who silently stared down at the puddles of blood against the dirt. It wasn't looking good.

Nguyen put the DHD back together again as Carter was cycling through all the possible addresses that had been dialed and only two came up, Earth which we could rule out and an alternative we had not been to yet. "We could get a MALP easily sent here and then use that to inspect..." Nguyen started.

"What are we doing here? We have the address right there. Dial it." I snapped.

"But protocol states..."

I cut her off again. "Protocol? I have three soldiers and a civilian missing. There is blood on the ground and this one," I pointed over at Erickson who was clearly in need of medical attention. "Is saying he heard the gate open. Dial it up and send Erickson to Fraiser. We are leaving. Now." I could see Daniel's fingers twitching around the collar of the lieutenant's shirt. He needed someone to pin blame on this situation, and we both knew Erickson was not at fault.

Nguyen nodded and dialed the address Carter had found. Daniel shoved Erickson into the major as Teal'c started into the void first and the three of us followed behind.

Eleanor

I could feel the pressure in my cranium, budding madness crushing into myself. The feeling of the cords tightly wrapped around my body, slicing at my skin when I moved in slight burns that did little to bring back the sensation of life in my numbing limbs. I was bound against the stone pillar that was too narrow to comfortably lean against. The sharp corner dug against my right shoulder blade, and the cording laid into each divet and roll of puckering flesh. The sun was starting to rise and I wanted to appreciate the glowing embers across the sky. Wanted to take in the fluffy cotton candy clouds and the way the beams of light illuminated the stone columns. We were perched on a cliff that jetted out over the ruins of a civilization that could have rivaled Rome at her peak.

"Atlantis?" Maher sneered sitting down again.

"Is a mythical place believed to be where Turkey is or even Northern Africa." I responded through chattering teeth. My sweater had been cut open to allow the ropes to wrap around my bare arms. The wind smacked against me on the cliff edge, only a camisole and my lightweight pants acting as any sort of protection on my skin.

Maher sucked in through his teeth, upper lip curling. "Look you dumb bitch, I don't care about your little fun facts." He walked closer, one foot step at s time and I nodded.

"Atlantis," I took in a breath and looked back at him, my eyes heavy and my chest heaving. "Is an animated film that quite honestly I feel like has some major similarities that can't be looked over with the SGC. Was Rineman leaking information to the Walt Disney corporation as well?" Fingers wrapped around one of the chords that tied me against the pillar and pulled, causing a gasp to escape and the rims of my eyes to water.

"Again?" He hissed and the clouds parted, wind kicking up around us. Our heads turned to see the Ha'tak ship in the distance of the planet. Maher's face slit into a grin and turned to me. "Oh you're in for a real treat now."