Under the Silent Stars - Chapter 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5
Under the Silent Stars - Chapter 6
USS George Hammond, High Earth Orbit, July 2010
"His cover's blown. Move in. Move in now. They have a ship." Daniel's insistent voice cut in over the relayed transmission from the Pentagon onto the bridge of the newest Tau'ri battlecruiser, it was also being piped down into the cargo hold where Cameron, Teal'c and Vala had set up a containment and holding area in preparation for any prisoner extractions they might need to effect. Thanks to this relay Sam heard quite clearly Cam's muttered imprecations over his own comm to her.
"Sam, beam us down there, quick!" his words didn't drown out the typical noises of weapon preparation he, Teal'c and Vala were making. She pointed once at the technician ahead of her who was looking over her shoulder in Sam's direction and gave a nod. Before the tech had turned back to her panel however, Daniel's voice returned over the radio.
"Yeah… we're too late." his resigned tone made her grit her teeth, it meant the cargo ship would be cloaked already.
"I want the last vector that cargo ship took and make detailed scans along the trajectory. Try and find anything which might indicate the passage of a cloaked ship." She stood up and made her way to the sensor technician at the fore station on the bridge. "The smallest trace of a plasma leak or ionisation trail is all we need!" She could already see the lieutenant at the station shaking his head. She grimaced and raised her fingers to the comm in her ear. "Cam, we lost them, better get back up to the bridge."
"We're on our way, Sam." The frustration in his tone was very clear to her and she shared it. In spades. This was a complete mess. She was already in contact with the Pentagon when the other members of SG-1 rolled into the bridge, still in full tactical gear, minus weapons. Cameron strode purposefully to the screen and stood next to her.
"I want Daniel here with his equipment as soon as possible, Carter. We need to know what he saw." O'Neill continued his debrief already in progress with only a quick pause to give Cam his own share of a baleful look. "Then, you expedite Hammond's refit and get a ZPM from Selenis when you're done. I want to see SG-1 en route before Young leaves my office the next time he comes."
"Daniel should already be at the Pentagon, sir, we tagged him with a site-to-site beam as soon as he handed over the area to Captain Brandon of the lead assault team." Sam glanced at Cam in greeting before returning her gaze to the General. "His crew will be searching the area for any possible intel, though we don't expect to find anything." O'Neill nodded at that, knowing the chances were slim. "Sir, how confident are we of gaining anything from questioning Colonel Telford? If he has been brainwashed it will be almost impossible." She turned to Cam again when she saw him rub his chin, he had that look in his eyes Sam now associated with his recall of SG-1 mission reports.
"Without the facilities of the SGC they will have to take drastic measures to break the brainwashing." he said softly with a significant glance between Sam and the General. Her eyes widened slightly at his implication and she turned to O'Neill on the screen.
"We hope it doesn't come to that. I'll make an appearance on Destiny if necessary. After that..." Jack glanced away from both of them. Sam's eyes narrowed. "In the meantime buckle down on the refit and make sure you're ready for a go order, Homeworld Command out."
"Yes, sir, SG-1 out." she replied quietly. She glanced down at Cam's hand closed over her forearm and looked up to see an hint of gratitude in his eyes. She soon realised it was because of her sign off and smiled slightly. Turning to Teal'c and Vala who were looking at them expectantly. "Your turn with the memory device, Vala. I have to supervise the refit for a while." Cam nodded at her and rounded up the raven-haired alien, leaving the bridge with her. "Teal'c, can you take charge here on the bridge while I'm in engineering? Keep an eye on these kids." He smiled and bowed.
"Of course, Colonel Carter." He actually sat in the Big Chair. Sam was impressed. Several hours later she was just finishing a second set of power simulation tests on the ZPM harness when the Jaffa's voice came over the ship-wide comm. "Colonel Carter, Colonel Mitchell, please come to the bridge. We are receiving a transmission from General O'Neill." She ran out and headed for the elevator, as fast as her feet could carry her. Time was of the essence now. She ran into Cam in the short corridor running towards the bridge and they both arrived at the comm screen together. General O'Neill blinked at them as Teal'c turned towards them with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure they were in different parts of the ship, Teal'c?" O'Neill asked incredulously.
"Indeed, O'Neill. I am certain of it." Teal'c was still glancing at them, but his mien held a light mirth.
"Hunh. Guess you're right." Jack waved them down as they both came to attention in front of the screen. "We have the intel. Lucian Alliance is going to attack Destiny!" She looked at Cam and could see he was just as surprised as she was. "They've found another planet with a naquadria core and have it hooked into a Stargate. Why they want Destiny is beyond me. Telford must have told them it's a giant rustbucket."
"Sir, how confident are we about this intel?" Cam asked, not bothering to hide his incredulity.
"As confident as we can be. Telford also gave us coordinates." Cam nodded, but he still didn't look happy. "You'll lead the ground assault, Mitchell, we'd like to take the place intact if possible. Carter, you'll be in charge of space superiority and force protection." They both rattled off quick 'yes, sir's. "Oh, and can you take Daniel with you? I've heard enough about his relationship problems for one week." They saw a fist connecting with Jack's shoulder and heard a muffled giggle from behind them as Vala approached. "Go get your ZPM from the Moon and head off, Homeworld Command out." Sam turned to the beam tech behind her and signalled her order and almost immediately Daniel appeared at the front of the bridge. He glanced sheepishly at Vala for an instant before it was replaced with a glare at the rest of them.
They set off on the quick jaunt to Lunar orbit and manoeuvred into position above the Alteran base. Sam and Cam beamed into Selenis' 'gateroom together, thanks to the beam in area they'd marked off previously.
"~Welcome back, Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Carter.~" came the crisp tones of the base's computer and Sam smiled slightly at her newly acquired ability to understand it. "~Colonel Carter, are you able to understand me now?~" Sam looked up and saw Cam smiling at her as he quickly led them off to the main power junction.
"~Ah, yes, Selenis. The course I took was a success, though I am still training my brain. It will be good if you speak to me as much as possible.~" Sam couldn't believe she was actually asking the computer to have a conversation with her.
"~Of course, Colonel Carter.~" The computer was very solicitous. "~I take it from your evident hurry and the-~" she couldn't make out the word, "~-of Dr. Jackson, Teal'c and Vala, that this stay will not be a prolonged one.~"
"~That's correct. We're here to pick up a Potentia for use in our ship. We're on a rescue mission.~" Sam hesitated a moment, but steeled herself. "~What was the word you just used then, Selenis? 'Evident hurry and the what of Dr. Jackson.'" Selenis repeated itself, but Sam still didn't catch it, she shook her head and looked at Cam who was glancing at her.
"Absence." he translated with a smile.
"Absence. ~Absence.~" She repeated, faltering slightly on the new word and concept forming in her linguistic centers.
"~Commendable, Colonel Carter. If I may say, your accent is very similar to Dr. Jackson's.~" Cam was laughing his head off. Oh no! The base had compared her accent to Daniel's, of course Cam was laughing.
"~Thank you, Selenis.~" she replied only for Cam to laugh again. She aimed a swat at his arm.
"~If I may make a suggestion, given stellar coordinates for your destination I will be able to find the nearest Supergate to that location. It would take considerable time off any journey.~" At the suggestion Sam raised her head in thought for a moment and halted her steps. Cam stopped with her and she glanced his way. He nodded and continued towards the stairs and the main junction room while she turned on her heels and headed back to the 'gateroom.
"~That sounds like a great suggestion, Selenis. Could you open communications with the ship above our position, please.~" She had already arrived at the 'gateroom and was climbing the stairs nearest the corridor leading up to the right hand side balcony. A small sound played over her comm and she silently thanked the base's foresight at patching the subspace comms through her own earpiece. "Hammond, this is Carter, come in."
"Colonel Carter, this is Hammond. What is your status?" Teal'c's slight tone of concern made her smile.
"We're fine, Teal'c, Colonel Mitchell is retrieving the ZPM, but Selenis just made a very intriguing suggestion. Patch through the stellar coordinates of the Lucian Alliance outpost to the base please." When Selenis indicated she had received the transmission and located a suitable Supergate, Sam asked for it to be displayed on a galactic map above the control console, the base obliged. It was damned close to the Lucian Alliance planet. They would be there in less than half an hour after leaving the Supergate. "Captain Kennedy, we're opening Selenis' hangar bay, come inside, we're taking a trip via the Supergate." By this time Cam had already returned to her side and was watching her hands fly over the neighbouring hangar bay control console and they both looked up above them as the iris over the hangar slowly twisted and widened. She leaned in to Cam and said under her breath, "I just wonder how much power this is going to use. Opening a wormhole connection of that diameter is extremely draining."
"~It is not necessary to use the full width of the Supergate to admit a vessel as small as yours, Colonel Carter.~" Both Air Force officers looked up in surprise.
"~Do you mean we can alter the diameter of the Supergate's wormhole connection?~"
"~Of course.~" Several buttons lit up on the Supergate console and lines of text floated across the display in shallow boxes.
"A variable geometry Stargate. That's... genius." Sam laughed giddily as her fingers flew over the controls. The Supergate at the far end of the hangar began twisting on itself, narrowing its aperture much like an iris.
"Hammond, this is Mitchell." Cam had touched the stud on his comm and was watching as the wormhole established inside the two hundred meter aperture Sam had left inside the Supergate. "Captain Kennedy, sorry about this, but you'll only have two hundred meters to squeeze through."
"Colonel Mitchell, I believe Captain Kennedy is feeling insulted right now." Sam laughed at Teal'c's words and Cam chuckled.
"I meant no offense, Captain. I'm sure you're up to the task." Cam patted Sam's shoulder indicating they should prepare to leave. They both paused as the muffled voice of the young woman piloting the Tau'ri battlecruiser floated over the comm.
"Says the guy who used Odyssey as ninety-thousand ton catcher's mitt to stop a three hundred mile an hour fastball the size of a pea." Sam immediately raised her hands to ward off Cam, but he was having none of it.
"Captain," They both heard the dismayed squeak in their ear, "you'll apologise to Colonel Carter for comparing her to a pea." His voice was serious, but the glint in his eyes had Sam shaking her head and sighing.
USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 365 days relative
She watched as he ran down the corridor again. He'd run through the ship so much that every part of it had his mark on it in some form or another. His heels kicked up all the way to the backs of his thighs as he powered away from her and veered out of sight around a corner. She'd let him down. She'd let all of them down. It would be a year tomorrow, including the leap day. She frowned slightly in thought, did you have to include the leap day inside a time dilation field considering only femtoseconds had passed outside of it? If you went strictly by a calendar to mark days, then yes. They were still keeping track that way. They had decided they would so that they could celebrate birthdays and other festivities. They needed something to look forward to. She turned and walked towards the elevator.
Cam had been growing distant from all of them. He spent more and more time running in the mornings. Sometimes they went more than a day only seeing him at mealtimes. He'd eat quickly then disappear again. Teal'c saw him most often, and even then it was only for their sparring sessions. They'd also been getting longer according to the Jaffa, he wasn't worried yet, the most he'd admit to was concern. He'd asked her to try to talk to Cam, but what could she say? If he was avoiding anyone more than the rest, it was her. She'd tried to give him a birthday present a week or so ago and he'd been like a stranger. A quick thank you and a smile which didn't reach his eyes. She reached the elevator and pressed the call button. It didn't take long for the doors to open, but she hesitated. Something pulled her head around to follow the corridor down to the end. Something tugged at her and she found her heels turning around and her feet stepping to follow Cam's route through the ship's passageways. She walked, turning occasionally down side corridors until she found herself at an observation deck on the port side of the ship.
The shimmering blues, mottled greens and wispy whites of P3X-474 shone through the window, unmoving, ever constant within their little bubble of nearly frozen time. She stepped into the room and soon noticed Cam sitting against the wall not far from the furthest view port as it rose up from the deck at an angle. He was clasping his wrists across bent knees and leaning his head against the bulkhead while staring out at the planet. If he noticed her he made no move to show it. She padded over and still received no reaction, even when she sat down beside him he remained motionless. She rested her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes, taking in the scent of him on his hooded top. She was just happy he had let her get this close with no protest. In fact it took her by surprise when he finally did speak.
"I'm sorry about how I treated you on my birthday. It wasn't right." She opened her eyes and glanced up at his face, he was still staring out the window so she lay her head back on his shoulder.
"It's okay, Cam-" She stopped and gave a wry smile. "Well no, it's not okay, but I understand. I really do." His head rolled down and rested on the top of hers and she sighed.
"Sam, this whole situation, I..." he stopped and sighed, falling silent for long moments before resuming. "I'm losing myself." There was nothing she could say to that. Nothing more she could do than what she was doing now. She wanted to do more, so much more, but sometimes she felt as if everything that happened on this ship was just a mirage, an illusion that was going to fade away on a breeze. Vala had come to her a few months ago with an eager desire to help her, Sam was just glad of the company even if her ideas were outlandish. However, something Vala had said had stuck with her. One idea had left a little germ of a seed and now it was driving Sam completely. And if it succeeded it would mean nothing that happened on this ship would be real. A thought which sometimes left her feeling bereft. She felt Cam's head lift from hers and he shifted and let it hang down against his chest.
"Cam?" She lifted her head to look at him and he did the same to meet her gaze.
"Sam, if I go crazy..." Her eyes widened slightly, but her features eased when she caught the reference in his twinkling eyes, laying her head back on his shoulder.
"I'll still call you Superman." She smiled at having just a little bit of the old Cam still with her.
Galadia, Earth's L2 Lagrangian Point, August 2010
Sam was back at the engineering console running simulations and orbital trajectory calculations. Things weren't looking promising. As it was, their attack window on the incoming projectiles was not large, only twenty minutes or so. They needed more firepower.
"~Galadia, estimated time of arrival for the Jaffa and Tok'ra contingents?~" As if in answer to her question, three Ha'taks exited hyperspace right in front of them and Daniel soon had the commander of the lead Tok'ra ship on a holographic display projected between the two forward stations.
"Greetings from the Tok'ra, Tau'ri vessels. I am Thellas. We have received your call for aid and stand ready to assist." He glanced to his left and his eyes widened slightly. Obviously Daniel was keeping himself busy. "I see, this is grave indeed. We shall join your formation."
"Thank you, Thellas," replied Cam from the control chair, "Colonel Mitchell of SG-1 here, aboard Galadia. Welcome to the party." Cam was bringing up a tactical display on Sam's monitor and laying out several options, some she'd already considered and discarded, others looked interesting and might buy them a few more minutes. She indicated a few for him and passed them back. With that he arranged an order of battle which had Galadia moving in first to engage the EMP bombs, with Ancient technology being generally impervious to the effect, she stood the best chance of peeling away that protective layer from this assault. The Tok'ra Ha'taks would then begin engaging the point defense warheads while the Terran vessels assisted with rail guns and missiles and covered them with their stronger shields. If that phase went well they'd be able to engage the biological warheads. It was a safe bet they'd be heavily shielded. Galadia powered up and set off on an intercept course with the incoming missiles. "Sam, Jackson, better get some weapons for yourselves too, we'll need the firepower." Sam glanced over her shoulder at the back of the command chair, she had to agree with that assessment, turning back to the unused console beside her she configured it with a fire control interface and the holographic display came to life with a tactical plot and overlaid on that a targeting interface with a realtime visual feed. She assigned some of the unclaimed plasma cannons to her fire control and started coordinating with the others via Galadia's targeting computer, then had the display swap with the engineering screen above the console she sat in.
They were soon in range and the warheads began juking and manoeuvring erratically across her displays, she opened up with her cannons and was soon scoring hits, but only doing minimal damage to the missile's shields. She increased the yield of her cannon fire to compensate. Cam began firing drones, taking control of ten or so and sending them against the leading EMP bomb, which chose instead to detonate, bathing Galadia in radiation and electromagnetic flux, which she defiantly ignored. The missiles were already passing them by on this tight intercept course, their relative delta-v was steep, though nothing for which the targeting computer couldn't compensate.
Cam's drones were chewing through their assigned targets, ripping through shields and armour like paper, destroying engines and warhead in actinic explosions. Sam's higher yield plasma beams were also scoring hits, though it took more than a dozen to eat through the quickly regenerating shields on the warheads. With only a couple of EMP bombs left Cam signalled Daniel to order the other ships to move in on the point defense warheads, while he began an orbital manoeuvre to reacquire targets as they closed on Galadia from behind. Sam focused her display on the view behind them and watched as the Tok'ra Ha'taks moved in alongside the rest of the warhead swarm from ahead, letting it slowly gain ground on them. The smaller, but more agile Terran vessels shadowed them with their more powerful shields, keeping between the Tok'ra and the warheads. It was a good thing, as soon as the ships began to fire on the quickly evading warheads, they started rapidly spinning along their axis, bringing each energy beam lens to bear on its target in quick succession, creating a rapid fire gatling gun effect which poured fire into the Tau'ri ships' ZPM-augmented shielding.
"Cam, we need to get back there to assist." she called over her shoulder as she watched the Tau'ri railguns and Tok'ra plasma beams striking the shielded drones, whittling away at their heavy defense.
"Working on it, Sam." he replied tightly, obviously working through the complex manoeuvres in his mind along with Galadia. As it was, the swarm was catching up to them, Cam was really trying to ensure they wouldn't pass by too quickly as they were still accelerating towards Earth. She soon found her weapon display flash the lead point defense drone as in range of her aft cannons and she opened fire. The angle was oblique, but even grazing shots were depleting the shields. Three of the warheads abruptly switched targets to Galadia and coordinated together to pour rapid firing lances of plasma into her hull-hugging aft shields. Sam's engineering displays flashed up Cam's attempts to direct power from forward shields to aft and she switched displays momentarily, entering several command sequences to accomplish the shield power management operation, before switching back to fire control. The ship itself was rocking, they could feel the barely absorbed impacts on the engine cowling from here on the bridge, some eighteen hundred meters away. Sam scored several hits on a drone and it exploded in a spiralling flurry of debris which struck another warhead, taking it off course and giving her a better angle to target it. She sliced it in half and its engine exploded, taking the rest of it up in a flash of rapidly extinguished flame. The fire from the Tok'ra ships was weakening the shields on the remaining warheads allowing the Tau'ri railguns to start tearing through them. Cam fired a slew of drones and each danced around its spinning target, striking and cutting and ripping. The warheads were taking their toll however, Apollo and a Tok'ra ship were venting atmosphere and limping badly, trailing behind and losing ground. By the time the last point defense warhead exploded, severely damaging the Tok'ra ship it had veered off into at the last second, the swarm was just outside Lunar orbit and well ahead of Thellas' ship, the Hammond and Odyssey and just overshooting Galadia, thanks to their higher delta-v. Sam fired her cannons non-stop at the shielded warheads. With no weapons of any kind, all the warhead's energy was directed to its shields. Sam increased the yield on her cannons once more and staggered their rate of fire so as to give the missiles' shields less time to recover. Cam's drones however, were struggling to overcome the strength and rapidly alternating frequency spreads of the warhead shields, gouging into them without penetrating. They had destroyed several, but they were also running out of time. The drones were already struggling to keep up and the targeting computer was becoming unable to compensate for the difference in velocity of their targets.
An alarm bell sounded, heralding the formation of a subspace anomaly ahead of them, an opening hyperspace window was disgorging a line of Ha'taks in High Earth Orbit which immediately opened fire on the incoming warheads. Their comm display reappeared between the forward stations and Sam couldn't help breaking into a welcoming smile at the face which gazed back at them.
"It is good to see you, my friends, however dire the circumstances. The Free Jaffa is here to assist our Tau'ri allies." Bra'tac's greeting lightened the mood on the bridge considerably.
"It is good to see you also, old friend. Your arrival is timely indeed, and your assistance urgently required." Teal'c intoned from his station even as he continued pouring plasma fire into the missiles rapidly leaving Galadia behind. The Jaffa ships were definitely taking a toll on the incoming warheads, but their window of engagement was very tight as they essentially formed a static screen which the missiles would quickly pass through. In the end, four warheads survived the curtain of fire poured forth from the Jaffa ships.
"~I can no longer compensate for the velocity differentials to the targets.~" stated Galadia matter-of-factly and Sam cursed, they were essentially shooting blind now.
"We need to get closer. Hyperdrive?" Cam suggested.
"Won't work, ours is so fast we can't control jumps that small." Sam replied. Cam grumbled then veered Galadia up off the pursuit.
"Cameron, what are you doing?" asked a worried Vala, Daniel spun around in his seat.
"Are you crazy, Mitchell?" he yelled in anger.
"Like a fox. If we can't get there from here then first we go somewhere from where we can." he muttered. "That sounded better in my head."
"~No it didn't, Colonel Mitchell.~" rebutted the ship. He frowned, glaring up at the ceiling.
"Sam, time?" he called out loudly. Her mind raced and she quickly understood what Cam was going to do. He was crazy. Crazy and amazing. She looked down at her tactical display.
"Fifty-five seconds to atmospheric insertion." she cried "Fifty seconds." She lowered her voice and spoke in a calm tone. "Do it, Superman." The ship leapt into hyperspace and emerged seconds later several AU above the plane of the Ecliptic where Cam came about to reverse his course, a target box encasing a tiny blue-green dot on their forward view.
"Saddle up, boys and girls, it's seat of the pants time." Another hyperspace window formed and they leapt inside for several seconds, emerging amid a fiery conflagration in the forward views and the wild buffeting and bucking of Earth's upper atmosphere.
"~Atmospheric re-entry underway, current altitude one hundred kilometers, course will take us west over the Pacific, targets re-acquired on a parallel trajectory four hundred meters above us. Your course was flawless, Colonel Mitchell.~" Galadia intoned and Sam turned back to her weapons screen and opened fire. Damn, Cam hit the Kármán line right on the nose.
"~Your timing on the jump was pretty good too, Galadia.~" Cam returned the compliment.
"Hate to be the bearer of bad news," Daniel called from his station, "but the computer is spitting out possible impact sites for these warheads. They must have some sort of AI targeting because they're still changing attitude and it looks like they're aiming for maximum casualties. southeast China, Indian subcontinent, central and western Europe, east coast of the US." Just about every area of high population density in the northern hemisphere. They all quietly turned towards their weapons consoles with renewed determination. Cam fired two drones which began tearing into the lead warhead, but she noticed on the tactical plot that whenever he tried firing another it would invariably spiral away and tumble inertly. She glanced over her shoulder and wondered how much concentration he must be using just keeping them stable as they tore through Earth's atmosphere. The two lead warheads exploded under their combined fire which caused the remaining two warheads to alter attitude to change targets, Sam quickly began firing at the still intact warheads, but they were out of time. Their visual feeds showed panels on the sides of the warheads opening, acting as air brakes which Cam was now having to compensate for to keep the warheads in range. The braking caused the warheads to begin spiralling, and with each revolution Sam got a very good view at all the triangular wedges, each filled with a biological payload, ready to emerge over western Russia and Europe. She cursed and gritted her teeth as Galadia began shaking heavily in the buffeting. A crackling filled the air and a strained voice yelling in rapid-fire Chinese washed over the bridge. The Sun Tzu! "Incoming!" yelled Daniel, in what must have been a very succinct translation. She grabbed onto the arms of her chair and managed to spare a glance at her engineering console as she noticed Cam had completely cut power to weapons and diverted it all to dorsal shields, structural integrity and inertial dampening. Oh crap! She hoped they weren't using nukes. A bright flash washed over the viewport followed by a huge crack, not bright or loud enough to be a nuclear explosion, but enough to make Galadia shudder and groan, lurching down wildly. It was followed by a second and a third and then a fourth which saw Sam sprawling on the deck and sliding into the back of the control chair, clutching at the back of her head while power surges showered sparks over her and small explosions from overloaded relays filled the bridge with smoke. Daniel was slumped over his console, shaking his head groggily. Several more lurches without accompanying explosions had her thinking they were really in trouble.
"~The remaining two warheads were destroyed,~" Galadia intoned calmly and Sam breathed a sigh of relief, "~enemy ships entering hyperspace, all targets have been neutralised. Atmospheric re-entry vector is too steep for this velocity, Colonel Mitchell, current altitude twenty-five kilometers.~" Oh crap. They were going to crash.
"I'm... working... on it." Cam replied shakily from beyond her line of sight as he sat in the chair. She scrambled to her knees and crawled around to the side of the control chair. Sparing a glance for Teal'c and Vala who seemed none the worse for wear. The sight of Cam caused her to gasp sharply. His jaw was clenched tightly, the muscles in his neck stood out like cords of taut rope as he struggled to concentrate. His hands gripped the arms of the chair at the manual interfaces while his brow furrowed deeply over tightly shut eyes. She wrestled with her fear, trying to figure out what she could do, what he needed her to do for him. She got up on one knee, lifted herself up the rest of the way, gripping the back of the reclined chair for balance as the bridge heaved and bucked all around them. For a moment, time seemed to slow down and crystallise before her as she looked down into his face and he opened his eyes to look straight at her. The blue fire in them took her breath away. She leaned down and gently brushed her lips against his as she lay a hand over his heart.
"Show me your super-human might, Cam." she breathed into his ear and his eyes flashed when she pulled away. He closed them again in concentration and she felt Galadia lurch under her feet, dropping away like a stone and she feared the worst until a sudden roll to port accompanied by a whining groan from the vessel saw her rolling back the other way, before pitching up and powering hard against gravity in a hard slog for orbit. She had no idea how he'd done it. She had no intention of asking him. She really didn't want to know what kind of crazy-ass thing he thought of at the last minute. She just wrapped her hands around his head and kissed him hard.
An hour later, they'd debriefed over subspace comms with Bra'tac, Thellas and General O'Neill, who mentioned the slight headache they were having trying to explain the fireworks in the upper atmosphere over the Pacific coast and central Asia. The Tok'ra mentioned they had sent cloaked Al'kesh after the unknown ships which had blazed out of system much more swiftly than they had arrived, no longer burdened as they were with half a dozen warheads apiece. Bra'tac called Cameron insane, but a good kind of insane. Since then, Sam had forced him to rest. They had come here to the Observation Deck while Galadia piloted them back to Lunar orbit at a leisurely pace as the AI diagnosed damage in her systems. Sam sat on a curved-back bench with Cam's head in her lap and stroked his hair while he dozed. She watched Luna slowly grow larger through the quarter bubble of the view window.
"~Dr. Carter? Will Colonel Mitchell be alright?~" Sam was startled by the softness of the ship's voice. She looked down at her love and soon smiled gently, brushing her fingers across his cheek.
"~Yes, Galadia, he just needs to rest.~" she replied.
"~I am glad. He is a remarkable commander.~" Sam looked up at the ceiling above her head for a moment then glanced at the Moon through the window and the stars shining steadily behind it. She smiled softly at how these Alteran AIs were becoming a very important part of their lives so quickly.
"~Thank you. You are a mighty warrior, Galadia.~" she breathed softly.
"~Thank you, Dr. Carter.~" burbled the ship's AI. Sam could clearly hear the pleasure in her tone.
On to Chapter 7