This story takes place midway through season seven, after Daniel has re-joined SG-1, and before the episode "Heroes".

Chapter 1

Madness

Three days had certainly been long enough. Hammond rubbed his fingers over his drooping eyelids for the umpteenth time that hour, and looked down again at his wristwatch to make certain that time truly was continuing to move forward instead of standing still, or even forbid, moving backwards. He even looked out at the Stargate to see if some cosmic vortex was sucking time in on itself, and taking him with it. God, if the U.S Air Force only made mainlining caffeine legal, he'd have it made. As it was, he'd have to settle for the diesel fuel that they served in a mug, which had cleverly been disguised and re-named as regular coffee. Hammond sat staring out of his office window waiting and praying as he always did for the safe return of SG-1.

The last that General Hammond had heard from his flagship team, was after Dr. Frasier and her medical staff met up with SG-1 on the planet known as Che'ctala, to recover Major Carter from an unknown accident. The details were so shady, that the General wondered if SG-1 hadn't found paradise and decided to go AWOL without telling him. The only thing that Hammond knew for certain was that Major Carter was in some kind of trouble and SG-1 had requested the medical team's assistance. That was two days, twenty hours, forty three minutes and fifteen..sixteen sec... Oh the hell with it. Hammond hauled his tired bones out of his creaky office chair and decided on another inspection of the control room. What he really needed however, was sleep, and he let out a very tired, anxious, and un-muffled yawn to show it. The General had just about hit the last step down from the winding stair case to the control room, when the familiar sound of the Stargate engaging turned his head around like it was on a swivel. In three huge steps, he was standing next to Master Sergeant Harriman, waiting for the blue wave of the Stargate's vortex to light up the dark concrete gate room. It was three thirty am local time.

"Sir." Harriman acknowledged. The General briefly wondered if Walter had his name inscribed underneath the desk. Jesus, did he ever leave? Yeah right. Look who's talking.

"Sergeant." Hammond let out another yawn, a bit more stifled this time.

As the wormhole engaged, Hammond knew that it would be SG-1. The klaxons rang differently, maybe. Or maybe the Stargate's smooth whine wasn't as soothing as it normally was. Whatever the reason was, Hammond didn't know. The electricity in the air seemed to visibly change, as the anticipated IDC was received immediately, and Colonel O'Neill's voice boomed into the speakers of the control room from somewhere on the other side of the galaxy. The iris was already opening in response to the silent nod from Hammond to Harriman, who without hesitation scanned his palm for the iris control.

"General Sir!! We've got a bit of a problem here!" O'Neill sounded winded as he keyed the mike. "We're coming home, but you'd better get Dr.'s Warner and MacKenzie in ASAP!" the Colonel was abruptly cut off with a muffled grunt. Daniel's voice jumped on the air, also considerably out of breath.

"General, we found Sam, but Janet and both members of her team..." the signal was lost as Daniel must have entered the wormhole.

"Dr. Warner to the gate room! Medical Team to the gate room!" the General leaned over the microphone and hit the intercom button. He looked behind at the Airman closest to him, and without addressing the young man's name or rank, spoke to him directly.

"Call in Dr. MacKenzie from the Academy hospital right away." Hammond was wide awake now. MacKenzie was the on call Psychiatrist. O'Neill wouldn't have asked for him unless there was something really really wrong.

"Yes sir." the technician got on the phone, and Hammond turned to head down to the gate room.

Before he could make it out of the control room however, SG-1 came through the gate in a hurry. Major Carter was being carried by Teal'c and the Colonel in a fireman's carry. Daniel followed behind them. Sam was screaming hysterically.

"Get your damned hands off of me! Put me down now! I don't know you! Where are you taking me?!

She was trying to wriggle out of the Colonel's grasp as he tried desperately to control her feet, and just barely managed to get out of the way as she kicked free. Teal'c was still gripping the Major in a giant bear hug, with her arms secured at her sides.

"Stand down Major Carter! Colonel what's going on?" Hammond shouted as he came into the gate room, but no one listened.

"PUT me the HELL down! LET ME GO! Sam continued to scream incoherently between phrases. She was completely out of control. Teal'c was determined to hold onto her but she was wearing him down. And it took a lot to wear Teal'c down.

"Major Carter, I do not wish to hurt you! This aggressive behavior is futile. Please.."

"CARTER!!"

"Sam please!

Hammond dared not get closer as Teal'c partly dragged, mostly carried Carter down the ramp by himself. She was blindly kicking now, and managed to get a few good square kicks into Teal'c's shins and knees. He didn't show any discomfort if there was any, and continued to hold tight onto Sam's upper body. As sort of a last ditch effort, she pulled both feet up and planted them on Teal'c's thighs, and tried to push off of him like an Olympic springboard diver. Teal'c still held tight.

"Major Carter, I said STAND DOWN!" he didn't know whether to be scared for the Major, or scared for himself. Either way, Hammond decided to maintain a little distance. He almost opened his mouth again, but Daniel beat him to it. He felt his heart racing like mad as his mind was trying to process what he was witnessing.

"Uh General...that won't do any good."

"It won't do you any good General." O'Neill repeated. "We need Dr. Mackenzie as soon as possible, and Dr. Warner too." Jack was speaking to Hammond but dared not take his eyes off of his 2nd in Command.

It was then that Hammond noticed that Carter was only half dressed. Her combat boots and socks were missing, and the elastic straps that secured the bottoms of her BDU pants legs were untied, leaving them flapping openly with every flying kick. The bottoms of Sam's feet were stained dark brown with muck and dried blood, and her ankles looked like she had walked through a football field of broken glass. She was also missing the top half of her BDU's as well as all of her gear, and only her un-tucked black t-shirt was left on. If you could still call it a t-shirt. It was really just shreds of material draped over her shoulders. Her bare arms were an identical match to her legs and ankles, with deep cuts and scratches all over. The Major had a rainbow of bruises across her face and neck, as well as about a three inch gash above her left temple which had drained blood down the side of her left cheek and shoulder. It would be lucky for her that the cut was in the hairline, as it looked like the scarring would be visible had the cut been any lower. Her blond locks which normally were very well kempt, were now a tainted, murky color, and were matted heavily to her head with a thick layer of crud.

A horrible, shrill wail filled the gate room as Sam let out another cry. It took every bit of military restraint that Hammond had not to cover his ears. He continued to stare at what appeared to be the devil's minion hiding out in Samantha Carter's body. In fact, the General was certain that at any second, he might see Sam's head spin around and pea soup come flying out of her mouth. He watched as one of the medical teams appeared in the far entry way with Dr. Warner, and an SF with what looked to be a tranquilizer gun.

Jack saw them at that same moment and bellowed across the gate room.

"Shoot!"

But Teal'c was involuntarily shielding Sam with his body, as his back faced squarely towards the SF with the tranq gun. The sonic pitched scream continued to erupt from the center of the room, and seemed to escalate even louder. There were now twenty or so of the base's personnel in the gate room, and many were now covering their ears. As was Daniel, as he watched helpless from the ramp. The staff in the control room just sat and stared down into the spectacle that was presenting itself below.

The Colonel and the General stood where they were, and tried to seem un-phased. As the two most superior officers, they had to maintain their authority. Besides that, both the General and the Colonel had seen combat days when the noise had been equally as deafening. Inside however, their guts were churning, hearts were pounding, and endocrine systems working overtime.

Jack was about to shout to the airman again, or just simply march over and take the tranquilizer gun and shoot Sam himself. Back on the planet, they had given Carter all of the little injectable morphine modules that came stocked in their medical field kits, but it had been like shooting a bee bee gun at a freight train. He didn't have to commandeer the tranq gun after all. A second and third airman appeared behind him in the doorway and both were carrying tranquilizer guns. They fired simultaneously at what should have been a direct hit into Sam's torso.

It was at that moment however, that Sam decided to have Teal'c's arm for an angry snack. Her screaming abruptly came to a stop, and was instantly replaced by a painful howl from Teal'c as Sam chomped down on his right arm hard enough to draw blood. And usually it took a tremendous amount of pain for the Jaffa to surrender even a sound. Carter's gnawing action caused Teal'c to loosen his bear hug, and she squirmed out from his grasp. She fell down hard on her rump at the base of the ramp, as the "swish" of the tranq darts went right over her head. Carter wiped Teal'c's blood from the bottom of her chin with a quick swipe of her hand, and as she did, she grinned maniacally. She was staring out at no one, her eyes void of recognition. The gesture did little more than to just smear the blood across her filthy face, and her blank stare really gave Daniel the creeps.

Jack moved in a flash. As Sam tried to scramble to her feet, Jack dove head first, landing on top of her, and drove her back down onto the concrete floor. She kicked out hard and landed a solid directly into Jack's crotch. Everyone else in the room seemed to flinch. The Colonel let his breath out with a muffled cough, and a cold sweat instantly washed over his body. He still managed to hold his position on top of Sam's back as he used his knees to try and pin each of her legs down. He grabbed for her hands as she started grunting and wiggling again.

At least she's not screaming. Jack thought to himself as he managed to secure one of her hands behind her back in an arm bar hold.

"Get off of me you son of a bitch! Let go! AAAAhh!"

Jack was suddenly aware of Teal'c hovering over him, but he ignored him so that he could concentrate on getting Carter's other hand behind her back. She was almost stronger than Jack in her deluded, paranoid state. Almost. Just as he wrestled Sam's other hand behind her back, he heard Daniel from somewhere behind him holler his name.

"Jack lookout!"

Not now Daniel.

"Colonel O'Neill."

Jack risked a look upwards as he heard Teal'c's slurred voice. Teal'c wasn't hovering over him after all. Too late to do anything but pray that his ribs and back would hold out, the Colonel felt Teal'c drop directly on top of him and Sam. He was unconscious now from the two erred tranquilizer darts that had hitq him, instead of their intended target which was Carter. Teal'c was out like a light. Meanwhile, Carter continued to squirm underneath Jack. Although now he suspected that it was more for the lack of decent lung capacity than to be feisty. Amazing what 400 pounds on top of one's back can do for stamina.

Daniel quickly jumped off of the ramp to try and roll Teal'c off of Jack and Sam.

"Can someone help...me?" He grunted as he tried now to shove Teal'c out of the way. Dr. Warner and his medical team moved in, as did the two SF's who had shot the darts. The SF's each grabbed one of Teal'c's limp but massive arms, and heaved the Jaffa to the safety of unconscious bliss by the wall at the back of the gate room.

Daniel got part of the way to his feet, when Sam started to bang her head against the solid cement floor. The thwump that her head made when it hit caused him to flinch. Incoherent garbles were the only sounds coming from her now.

Jack was holding onto her arms with all of his strength. Where were the handcuffs when you really needed them? They had already found out the hard way that the plastic wrist restraint zip ties they carried with them were no match for Sam in her current state. Jack was panting heavily as he was sitting up on top of Carter's rear end, with his legs locked around hers, and his hands grasping her wrists. She didn't appear subdued in the least. With each sharp thud of skull hitting concrete, Sam let out a very low, animal like growl. Her eyes were completely glazed over, staring off into some unknown realm, and she bared her teeth like a sly fox standing over it's midnight kill.

"Dr. Jackson, keep her from hurting herself. I need to give her a sedative, but I can't do it safely with her behaving like that." Dr. Warner moved in closer, and reached over to take the needle that one of the corpsman held out to him. Daniel went to reach for Sam's head to hold it off of the floor, but before he got a grip, she succeeded in violently knocking herself out. She went limp beneath Jack's hold, unconscious and quiet. The Stargate shut down as the wormhole disengaged. The shocked, still silence seemed to fill every crack in the gate room. Then everything began to move again.

The entire room breathed a very audible sigh of relief. Daniel laid his hand on Sam's back between her shoulder blades to check her breathing, as Jack let go of her hands and scooted off of her. He sat back on the floor as Dr. Warner knelt down to feel for Carter's pulse. De' Ja' Vu overtook the Colonel, as his mind's eye carried him back to when Jolinar was trying to escape through the gate after having hitched a ride inside of his second in command. He remembered how tough it had been to take her down that time. Which, given a choice, he would've gone back and done over again, before opting for this routine. At least he could talk and reason with Jolinar. There was no reasoning with Sam this time. He placed a protective hand in his lap and winced. Yep. Gonna have to check to make sure all the bits are in their right places later on. Jack couldn't quite bring himself to his feet just yet, and decided on sitting for another moment as he watched the med team work on Carter.

"Let's get her in for an MRI and CT scan STAT, and keep her restrained at all times." The corpsmen were rolling Sam onto the backboard, and then over to the stretcher. She already had another bruise starting in the middle of her forehead, and a round goose egg rose up from around it at her brow line. Daniel could see her bare belly through what was left of her t-shirt, and noted a mess of bruises there too. Poor Sam. If that's what her outside looked like, there was no telling what her insides looked like.

"I want to check everything. Get labs too. Complete blood counts, complete metabolic panel, check for any and all foreign bodies, you know the drill. X-rays too. Head to toe people, she looks pretty banged up. I want to know what we're facing here. And get an IV started, D5 &9 wide open." The medical team quickly and wordlessly headed out the door with Sam strapped to the gurney, as they started initiating the doctor's orders. "Where's Janet? She's the one we need to..."

"Dr. Warner?"

"Yes sir General?" Now that the room was quiet, a cacophony of little tom tom drums seemed to beat themselves to pieces in Hammond's head. The adrenaline dump his system had just taken left a terrible throb between his ears, and the aftertaste of his coffee seemed to permeate from somewhere deep in his belly as indigestion made a frantic move to come knocking for a visit.

"After you get Major Carter to the infirmary, please come and find me for a debrief of her status, and let me know the moment that Dr. Mackenzie gets here."

"Yes, General." said Warner with a nod.

"Oh and Dr. Warner?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Send someone back for Teal'c."

"Sir." Dr. Warner nodded at the General with a brief glance at the hulking form of Teal'c slumped on the floor against the back wall. Then he turned on his heels and was gone, off to the infirmary to care for his patient.

"Colonel, would you and Dr. Jackson mind joining me in the briefing room NOW?" Hammond didn't wait for a reply, he just marched for the steps that led up to the control room and ultimately to the briefing room. He really just needed a little bit of a head-start so that he could get himself together. What he had just witnessed in one of his most decorated officers, hell in one of Earth's most decorated officers, had scared the sludge of the commissary coffee right out of his system. The general didn't think he would be able to sleep well for a long time. The image of Sam Carter smashing her own skull against the concrete of the gate room floor kept replaying itself on a loop inside of his mind. I'm going to have to call Jacob in on this one. This is NOT what he meant when he said to take care of his daughter. He felt a quick pang of guilt.

The General strode past Teal'c with a worried look, as Daniel came to sit by his friend's side until the medical team came back for him. Daniel thought that without his symbiote, Teal'c might be unconscious for several hours at least. As he sat with his back against the gate room wall, he looked over at Jack who was still sitting tenderly on the floor in front the ramp with his hands buried in his lap. Daniel winced a little again as he remembered Sam's strong kick to Jack's groin. Ouch. Daniel took his grubby glasses off, rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, and then returned his gaze back to Jack. The Stargate sat idly behind him, and the iris had remained closed. Daniel watched as the Colonel turned his head to stare at the giant portal. He knew what Jack must be thinking about, or rather in this case, who Jack was thinking about.

"We're going back for them Jack, don't worry. Hammond isn't going to leave them behind on that god forsaken Hell of a planet." the words didn't sound real coming out of Daniel's mouth. He wasn't sure if he even believed them himself.

"Yeah, right. Well it's not leaving them behind that I am worried about. It's what we're going to bring home with us when we do find them that has me a weee bit concerned." he held up his thumb and first finger in a pinching gesture. "Seriously, I don't think I'm going to want to pee for a week after that. See, that right there is a great argument for why women shouldn't be soldiers. Even a crazy, demoniacally possessed MALE soldier wouldn't have kicked.....there. Because on some fundamental level it's all about protecting the goods you know?"

"Jack we really don't have time for this."

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" Jack patiently looked at Daniel for his answer, pleading with his eyes in the hopes that maybe this once, if he listened, actually heard what Daniel had to say, that the events of the last three days would make some kind of sense.

"The kick? Or her aim?"

Jack ignored him. "No Daniel, her behavior."

"Actually I have Jack. Remember Tuplo and his daughter? Remember how bad we were when that plague invaded the SGC? I do know that whatever Sam has is maybe a hundred times worse than that, and from our point of view it looks hopeless, but If we find Janet and the other members of her team I just know that she can figure this thing out. Janet is the best. There is nobody around here that can decode an alien disease like she can. We ARE going back to get her." Daniel got to his feet as the medical team came around the corner to retrieve Teal'c.

"You know, I was also thinking about that little creature that kept circling the tree where we found Sam."

"The one that looked like a Fraggle Rock reject?"

Daniel wrinkled his nose. "Yeah it wasn't very pretty, but it reminded me of that time in the Zigarad remember?"

Jack blinked and pursed his lips, waiting for the punchline. " I got nothin."

"We went on the joint mission with Colonel Zhukov and the Russians to Marduke's tomb?" Daniel walked over to where Jack was now on all fours, attempting to stand.

Jack just knelt on the floor, watching as it took four corpsmen to get Teal'c onto the stretcher. O'Neill knew from first hand experience, that it took a lot to bring Teal'c down, but it also took twice as much to haul him back up again. One of the Airmen, reached up and swiftly removed the two tranq darts from Teal'c's right shoulder, and threw them to the floor. Then he crossed the Jaffa's arms over his chest, raised up the gurney so that it was at pushing height. They rolled the gurney out of the gate room and headed up to the infirmary so that Teal'c could safely sleep off the sedation.

Daniel walked over and reached down to give Jack a helping hand up to his feet.

"You okay Jack?"

"I've been better Daniel, gotta say. But this isn't about me, it's about getting Carter back." he moaned lightly as the younger man leveraged him to his feet. " And it's about getting rid of whatever the hell that was that we just hauled out of here on that stretcher, because I know for a fact that wasn't Sam."

"Jack that's what I was going to say. What if something has possessed her? What if that creature had a uh I don't know a Goa'uld inside of it or something? Humans aren't the only known hosts you know. Or it could be like a virus like the one we brought back from the land of light."

The whole trip through Marduke's tomb was coming back to Jack, and his hand involuntarily went to his neck as he remembered the chunk of meat that was missing from the female Russian lieutenant's neck as he and Teal'c had carried her back home.

"No Daniel, you may have a point. But still...that definitely wasn't Carter. That might have been her body, but it wasn't HER." he paused, and adjusted his pants a little so that they weren't rubbing tender areas. "Okay. So let's go talk to Hammond about finding the one person in this galaxy that can save her, and stop gabbing." Jack clapped Daniel on the shoulder, and the two men headed out of the gate room. Jack was walking gingerly because his bits were still throbbing.

"And Daniel?"

"Yeah Jack?"

"Let's leave out some of the finer details this time eh?"

Daniel's mind recounted the scene when he and Jack and Teal'c had found Sam. The memory brought a spell of nausea on him now.

"Did you hear me? No gory details. We don't need to give Hammond more ammo to use as reasons why we shouldn't go back to that planet to get Frasier and her team." Jack rubbed his neck again with one hand as the creature from the Zigurad chased the Fraggle around the tree in his mind. For one insane moment he could have sworn he'd heard the song 'Pop goes the Weasel' playing as the soundtrack to his own personal horror feature in his head.

"Yeah...yeah that's no problem Jack, whatever you say." For a rare moment they were in complete agreement as the same feature show seemed to be playing in Daniel's mind too. The team- mates headed upstairs to de-brief General Hammond.