A Sword in Agate - Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3
A Sword in Agate - Chapter 4
Al Dhafra AB, United Arab Emirates, September 1993
Cameron looked down at the sealed envelope in his hands as he walked towards the door of his C.O. in the 19th FS out of Al Dhafra in support of Operation Southern Watch. Half his brain was telling him to tear it up and burn the scraps to ash, the other half was telling him that handing it over was what he had to do because he didn't deserve to wear the badges on his chest. He was a murderer. He slipped the letter in his pocket and knocked on the door, still in two minds as the voice from within signalled for him to enter. He opened it and walked in and coming to attention before realising his C.O. wasn't the only man in the room. A General stood next to his commander, looking at him appraisingly and Cam nearly blanched when he saw who it was.
"Captain Mitchell, reporting as ordered, sir." he intoned and his eyes flicked from the Colonel who regarded him worriedly and the General whose eyes were more pensive. Brigadier General Jacob Carter, Commander, 363d Fighter Wing, currently visiting assets deployed in support of Operation Southern Watch, looked over at Cam's C.O. and gave a small nod. The other man nodded back.
"The General wants a word in private with you, Mitchell. We'll talk later." With that, he walked from the room to Cam's alarm. His eyes darted back to General Carter who waited until the white-haired Colonel had left before coming over to the still stiff at attention Cameron and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"At ease, son." he said softly and Cam's shoulders slumped heavily, he managed to clasp his hands behind him and open his stance to the typical 'at ease' pose, but Jacob motioned for him to sit down instead. Cam did so and Jacob followed suit, sitting in the other chair in front of the Colonel's desk. "I know why you're here, Mitchell, and I know what you have in your pocket." Cam looked down and paled again. General Carter remained silent for several moments and Cam almost began to think he was meant to say something and looked up, only to find the General's eyes were soft and weary. "I'm not going to give you the whole spiel about how the Air Force needs you, etc. You know it already, you know it's true, and we both know it is entirely irrelevant." Cam blinked in surprise. "I'll just say, I've been where you are and I can tell you it won't ever get better," Cam smirked ruefully and looked down, "but if you hand over that letter it will definitely get much much worse." He looked up in disbelief. "Go home, talk to your Dad. If you believe what I've said after that, then I'll make sure there's a slot with the 44th out of Kadena waiting for you. You can get out of this hellhole and focus your energies elsewhere, even though all that is irrelevant as well." Cam looked on in confusion. "Will you do that, son?" Cam nodded and stood up when the General did. Jacob put his arm on his shoulder again for a moment before walking to the door. He stopped when Cam called him.
"General Carter?" he hesitated until Jacob lifted his eyebrows enquiringly. "You think my going to talk to my Dad about whether I should resign is irrelevant, but you tell me to do it anyway. Why, sir?" Jacob turned to look out the window for a moment without speaking before looking at Cam again.
"Because Sam's not an astronaut yet." He turned and walked to the door. Leaving Cameron stunned.
Stargate Command, December 2005
"So you don't know?" Daniel asked as he sat across the lab bench from Sam. Teal'c glanced over at him from the corner where he was examining some items on her shelf. She leaned back in her chair and shook her head as she put her feet up on the desk. She looked down at her hands in her lap and she rubbed her fingers together. She'd had no idea he'd ever had something like that in his past. She was surprised he'd never mentioned anything about it to her before. Perhaps a small petty part of her felt a little put out that he hadn't entrusted her with it. She quashed it viciously. Cameron was one of her oldest friends, he was suffering, she only had to look at him to see that. Whatever he'd had to dredge up was something which ate at the core of him. It had to be. "I'm a little surprised by that." Daniel added softly and she looked up at him as her brows tightened slightly.
"Colonel Mitchell is a soldier, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c turned from Daniel to Sam as he spoke. "All soldiers carry with them a darkness inside they cannot bear to show those they care about." Sam nodded and looked down at her hands again.
"Something that keeps them up at night. Something that stains their sense of self." she added softly and Teal'c bowed slightly though she did not see it. They were silent for a minute or two.
"This is hard." Daniel began. "I know I can't imagine all the things that you've been asked to do, Teal'c, but I sometimes forget that Sam and Cameron... that Jack too..." He brushed a hand through his hair and took his glasses off to squeeze his eyes shut with his fingers. Sam nodded slowly still staring at her thumbs rubbing against the pads of her fingers. "Sam, he'll come to you." She looked up at Daniel's words, her eyes widening. "I think he'll have to come to you now." Teal'c moved to stand beside Daniel as the archaeologist leaned forward over her bench towards her.
"I agree with Daniel Jackson, Colonel Carter. He will come to you." the Jaffa concluded. She looked between them both in slight confusion.
"Why do you think that?" she asked, Daniel simply shook his head.
"Because... you'll understand... and you're you." Daniel shrugged as Teal'c gave him a sidelong glance before turning back to the shelves. "We don't need to know unless he comes to us too, just... take care of him." She looked down at her hands once more with a little nod. Her friends departed quietly, leaving her to her thoughts. An hour later, Daniel's words proved prophetic as Cameron appeared at her door wearing his civvies. She looked up, glancing his way hesitantly.
"Cameron, are you... I know you might not want to..." She looked away, not knowing how to start such a conversation. He just picked up her jacket from the coat hook on her door and walked around her desk. He held out his hand and she took it, feeling his fingers tightening over hers as he pulled her to her feet gently. He helped her with her coat, squeezing her shoulders slightly after she'd threaded her arms through both sleeves, then gave her elbow a little tug, silently asking her to follow him, she fell into step alongside him and stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket, following the line on the floor to get them out of the base. "Cam..." She stopped when he looked at her, it wasn't a look that was asking for her silence, yet something about it compelled it nonetheless. She let her eyes fall to the ground as they boarded the elevator and rode it to sublevel 11, where they switched elevators to go the rest of the way. Once outside in the car park Cam strolled in the darkness towards his Mustang and unlocked it, opening the passenger side door for her and handing her the grocery bag that had been on the seat before walking around the front of the car to the opposite door. She looked in the bag and didn't like what she saw. A six-pack of beer, a bottle of bourbon and another of coke. He got in and she gave him a worried glance which he just ignored, starting the car and driving off the base, heading into the mountains.
Thirty silent minutes later he turned off the road onto a snowbound gravel run off which led to an overlook point for the forested valley below. He killed the engine and got out, walking around to open the door for her and taking the bag from her in silence. She paused before closing the door and walked to stand in front of him as he sat himself down on the hood.
"Cam, I understand that you might feel like-" She stopped as he fished out the six-pack and handed it to her. She stared at it nonplussed.
"That's for you. You'll need it. Or you can take the bourbon if you think you'll want something stronger." He stuck his hand back in the grocery bag and dug out the bottle of coke. "This is mine," he muttered, unscrewing the top and taking a long swig, "I still have to make sure you get home okay tonight." Sam's eyes began stinging as he patted the space next to him on the hood. "I have to tell you something that happened... something that I did..." He closed his eyes and she quickly sat next to him as he hitched up his heel on the bumper and draped an elbow over his knee. He stared out over the moonlit valley at the stars hanging over Colorado Springs, the whole scene touched with a haunted air thanks to the moonlight reflecting off the snow which covered everything in sight. He spoke softly, never raising his voice above a whisper. He'd stop whenever a car drove past them on the road far behind them, as if he couldn't take the chance he'd be overheard.
He spoke of Operation Southern Watch, of his transfer to the 19th FS out of Al Dhafra, of flying recon sorties and CAPs below the 32nd parallel, of chasing Iraqi Mirages as they made little taunting dashes through the sanctioned airspace. He spoke of the special ops they'd been asked to fly in support of the various intelligence agencies, dropping some precision guided ordnance on buildings which housed chemical weapons manufacturing equipment, or the leader of some local band of heavily armed thugs. He talked about how getting shot at by AK-47s was a daily thing and how heavier calibre anti-aircraft fire wasn't as rare as it could have been. She noticed how he never actually brought up the topic she knew was the reason he'd brought her here. She stopped him, leaning tightly against him in the cold, her arm looped under his.
"Cameron, I'll accept what you're willing to give," she whispered as his head turned towards her slightly, "I'll be what you need me to be." He looked at her directly then and his eyes nearly stopped her heart. She saw the pain and guilt and anguish and reached her hand up to brush the back of her fingers against his cheek. "I'll take some of your pain, if that's what you need." His head dropped and she ran her fingers through his hair for a few moments until he looked back out over the valley down below them. He told her everything over the next hour, from the mission shadowing the convoy to the conversations he'd had with his father while he decided if he still wanted to be in the Air Force, her eyes glinted when he mentioned talking to her Dad. She finished off the beer, but stayed away from the bourbon. True to his word he drank the coke and made sure she got home, where she hugged him fiercely, her eyes welling up with tears, then pulled him in and made him sleep on her couch.
Auburn, Kansas, September 2007
Cameron drove north along Washington Street until he got to the intersection with Ninth. He indicated to turn left and looked over towards his destination, the US Post Office building between Gambino's and Slow Bob's Diner. As he parked in the small lot in front, he spotted a familiar face looking out from Slow Bob's distractedly. Most faces in Auburn were familiar to him, though getting less so the more time he spent away from the town, but this face belonged to Darrell Grimes, one of his closest friends from his days at GW High. Cam gave a little smile as he ducked back into his Mustang to reach for the parcel his Mom asked him to mail for her and hoped the queue wouldn't take too long so he could head over to the diner afterwards and catch up.
He'd come to Auburn with a pretty specific purpose and it wasn't really anything to do with visiting his folks. He'd been feeling uneasy since Sam left for Atlantis the previous month, well, tell a lie, he'd been feeling uneasy since before that. Since his high school reunion, especially since his reunion with Amy Vandenburg. The uneasiness really started gnawing at him after the mission to the Asgard home galaxy though, after whatever happened on Odyssey. He could feel it in his gut that something had happened. He didn't know what, but something important happened on that ship. He grimaced and shuffled forward in the line as he held his Mom's package in the crook of his arm. The source of his uneasiness was definitely the understanding he and Amy had come to during that weekend in early May when he'd come back for his reunion. He sighed as he remembered the kisses, remembered how he'd just wanted something he could build on. He'd thought Amy could be the person that would let him forget Sam, but that wasn't fair to either of them and he cursed himself again for the umpteenth time for having ever dared put his old school friend in such a no-win position. Even now, with Sam three million lightyears away, Hell, especially now, she was the one he missed. And he had to tell Amy, he couldn't lead her on anymore. They'd shared phone calls over the weeks and months since, but tellingly, neither of them had actually brought up the subject of a visit, she certainly never took him up on the offer of coming to Colorado Springs. It was his turn at the counter and the elderly African-American lady sitting behind it beamed at him and her eyes crinkled as she took off her spectacles and let them hang around her neck on their silver chain.
"Cameron, my dear boy! So good to see you again." She grinned broadly and patted his hand as he laid the parcel on the scales to be weighed.
"Yes, ma'am, Mrs. Nicholls, it's good to see you too." He smiled and leaned against the counter while she lifted her glasses again and checked her computer.
"Your Momma sendin' some more of her preserve to Emma up in Wisconsin?" she asked jovially and Cam nodded in confirmation. "She tol' me you were made a full Colonel, child, is that so?" She looked up at him over her glasses with a teasing smile. He grinned.
"It is, ma'am. The Air Force has yet to figure me out for the scoundrel and knave that I am. If I keep this up I'll get to be a General, then I can really do some damage." he joked and she guffawed with a slap of her knee.
"My boy, if you become a General the whole world will be in trouble." She laughed and Cam chuckled himself. She looked up at him again with a twinkle in her eye. "Mind you, a good woman could save us all from such a turn of events, hmm? When are you goin' to bring home a lady, sonny?" Cam smiled sheepishly and rubbed at the back of his neck.
"I don't rightly know, ma'am." he replied, but she smiled teasingly as he spoke.
"But there is someone, isn't there?" she asked and he looked down. "I knew it. Don't take too long now, ya hear?" She pressed some keys on her keyboard and the label printer started up. He paid for the postage she read off to him and they both bid their farewells with his promise of seeing her on the Sunday coming when his parents went to church. He stepped out and looked over at Slow Bob's to see Darrell still seated there, so he walked through the adjoining parking lot and stepped inside, surprised his friend had yet to spot him. He slid into the booth opposite Darell and slapped the table in front of him.
"Hey Darrell, how's it goin', man?" he asked with a bright smile, but frowned slightly when Darrell jumped in surprise and nervous alarm.
"Cam? You're here? That's... that's really great! I'm... I'm good, real good, how are you? I heard you made Colonel." Darrell rambled shakily. Cam tilted his head quizzically.
"Yeah, I did. Darrell? You sure you're okay, buddy?" he asked in concern. Darrell looked pale, but was nodding vehemently. "Since you're here maybe you can tell me if you've seen Amy recently? I need to talk... to... her..." he trailed off when he saw Darrell gulping down hard and blanching even further. "Dude, something's not good with you, what's wrong?" Darrell's eyes flicked up over Cam's shoulder and a look of horror descended on him, Cam followed his gaze and looked over to see Amy standing behind him with a similar look of dismay. He blinked as the gears in his head started whirring and clacking away.
"Ca-Cameron? How good to see you." she stuttered and Cam lifted a hand to point at her then at Darrell who looked like he was about to have a stroke. Cam felt the relief washing over him. He smiled unconsciously which only brought confusion into Amy's eyes and he slid out of the booth and motioned her in and sat next to Darrell who still seemed pale.
"It's good to see you too, Amy, how are things?" He smiled and looked between her and Darrell then frowned. "Wait up." He saw them both suddenly tense and he looked around the diner before settling a very stern, unhappy gaze on Darrell. "Darrell, you brought Amy to Slow Bob's? Couldn't you take her somewhere nicer?" he asked tersely and Darrell blinked at him in confused apprehension.
"I invited him." breathed Amy from across the table, so Cam turned the exact same stern, unhappy gaze to her.
"Amy, you brought Darrell to Slow Bob's? Couldn't you take him somewhere nicer?" he asked in the exact same tone as he'd used with Darrell. She laughed nervously until he smiled as well.
"Cameron, I'm sorry I-" he stopped her with a hand over hers.
"It's alright, Amy, really." He looked between them both. "How are you two doing?" he asked and Darrell still looked like he didn't know where he was. "Calm down, man!" Cam gave him a little slap on the cheek and grinned. "I'm not angry, damn it, I'm happy for you both." He turned to look at Amy apologetically and her eyes widened in realisation. "I'm the one who should be apologising to you, Amy. Really." She shook her head and looked at Darrell who hadn't said anything since she'd arrived. He finally managed to croak something out.
"Cam, please don't kill me." he pleaded weakly, Cam frowned at him.
"Are we still on that?" he shook his head with a chuckle. "Darrell, let me borrow Amy for just a minute, okay?" Darrell murmured something unintelligible which Cam took to be consent and looked up at Amy who nodded slowly and began to slide out of the booth. Cam followed her after giving his friend a reassuring smile. They walked out into the late summer afternoon, crossed the street and walked around the side of the City Office to stroll along the playing fields attached to the local school.
"Cameron, I don't know what to say, and I don't understand why you think you should be apologising to me." Amy confessed her confusion while they walked and Cam could only smile at her sidelong before answering.
"The truth is, Amy, I've known who I wanted to spend my life with for a long time now." He looked down and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. "And I've been scared of admitting it. For various reasons., good and bad." He sighed and looked down at the long grass he was trampling underfoot.
"Obviously it's not me." she breathed with a wry smile and he had to look her in the eyes, she deserved that much.
"No, and that's why I need to apologise to you. I put you in a horrible position, entirely through my own selfishness." he replied and she clasped her hands behind her back as they walked on side-by-side.
"Why are you scared of admitting it to her?" she asked. "Do you work with her? Is this a military thing?" He nodded to her questions.
"How to explain, when the reasons why I can't tell her are the same as why I want to so desperately." He shook his head.
"It's not Vala, is it?" she asked and laughed at his horrified look. "No, I guess not." She turned serious again. "Why do you call it selfishness? You saw me as a convenient way to try to escape?" He looked at her and she frowned at the pain he must have been showing as he nodded. "That's ridiculous. Cameron, I learned something after my marriage, after our reunion." She glanced at him and he nodded for her to continue. "I should have told you how I felt while we were still in high school. Maybe you should have done the same back then too. We missed our moment back then." She tilted her head and stopped, turning to face him. "Do you still have a chance with this woman? If you do then seize it. Do it now." He sighed and looked up into the sky, imagining he was looking towards Pegasus. In reality he had no idea where it was. Maybe he'd ask someone on base to tell him how to find it in the night sky.
"She's very far away right now." he whispered and she sighed softly in return. He looked back down and smiled sadly. "Let's get you back to Darrell. I think he and I will have to have some sort of talk to get past this whole 'scared to look me in the eye' thing." he frowned slightly and she nodded with a slight smile as they began to walk back.
Port Royale, South Bimini Island, October 2008 (alternate timeline)
Sam sighed as she rested her head on her clasped hands and felt the sun shining down on her back. She closed her eyes behind her sunglasses and flicked her toes through the sand past the edge of the towel on which she was lying. She felt him approaching from under the beach umbrella they'd set up a little ways away. She sighed happily again as a slow smile of anticipation crept across her lips. She listened to the sea birds on the breeze and the splashing of the waves crashing on the sand ahead of her, then she shivered slightly when she felt his shadow over her back.
"Sorry, darlin', this is going to be a bit cold." Cam said as he lay his hand on her shoulder, the distinctly cool sun cream he was slathering into her skin added another quiver to her shoulders and she made a little sound of assent as his hand moved across her upper back, massaging the lotion deep into her skin as his fingers kneaded the muscles underneath at the same time. He brush her hair out of the way with the back of his hand and used his fingers to pass the cream over the nape of her neck, eliciting another little sound of pleasure from her smiling lips. His hand moved down along her spine and he passed the fingers under the strap of her top momentarily before kneading more cream into the skin of her lower back. She had to bite her lip when his lotion-slick fingers ran around her hips and backside and then over the muscles on the back of her thighs and her calves. He came back up to pull one of her arms straight and pass the lotion over it then bent it back under her cheek before moving to her other side to do the other arm. She turned to face his new location when he moved and after releasing her arm he flicked at her cheek, indicating she should raise her head, she did so, rising up onto her elbows and smiling when he kissed her tenderly before using his fingers to pass lotion over her cheeks, nose and forehead. She looked at him as he smiled lovingly at her and swore she'd just fallen in love with him all over again.
"Cam, your smile is a deadly weapon." she murmured and he chuckled, leaning down to kiss her again. He reached around and came back with some lip balm for her to apply, which she did. "Will you do my front later?" she asked teasingly as she laid her head back down on her forearms. He laughed, kissing her hair over her temple.
"I think I can find it in me to do that." he growled into her ear before standing back up. "Where's Daniel?" he asked. She lifted her head up languidly and pointed off into the water where the linguist was floating on his back in the sea, his hands paddling lazily back and forth as he rose up and down on the swells. "Good, good. Looks like he's enjoying himself." She smiled and nodded, letting out another little assenting murmur while bringing her arm back under her cheek.
"Cam..." she began and felt him sitting back down next to her after sounding a little enquiring hum. "If we succeed, if we get in contact with someone who can help us find Ba'al's time machine, if fixing things means a one-way trip to the past like we think it does..." she trailed off as she felt him lie down alongside her perched up on his elbows, and then felt his lips kissing her shoulder. She opened her eyes behind her shades and watched his eyes through his, only able to see a vague outline, but still knowing exactly what look he was giving her. "Could you spend the rest of your life with me in the past like that?" He reached over and flicked her forehead.
"I'd happily spend the rest of my life with you during the Dark Ages, let alone the Forties." he replied. "Hell, I'll only have to wait a little while for rock 'n' roll and in the meantime swing is good too." She chuckled and lifted an arm to caress the back of his neck.
"I can dance to that, you know." she breathed and he smiled slowly. "I can dance to lots of music like that," she pulled him in closer and whispered in his ear, "I'll teach you." He gave her a little nod as she let him ease away. She caressed his cheek. "So you'd even live with me in the Dark Ages, hmm? In Arthur's Court? Be my Lancelot?" she teased and he shook his head with a smile.
"I read a lot of Arthurian legend stuff when we were looking for the Sangreal." he leaned in against her while her fingers tousled his hair. "Lancelot really only shows up in the stories after Chrétien of Troyes' tales. Anyway, he's a homewrecker." She laughed. "Remember when Merlin called me Percival?" She nodded.
"He called me Guinevere." She gave him a small wry smile.
"Mm-hmm. I did a lot of reading on Percival, or Peredur as the Welsh tales called him," he leaned over to kiss her gently, "and his lover, the beauteous Angharad of the Golden Hair." She giggled.
"So I could be Angharad to your Percival?" she asked, he gave her a little shrug. "I'd like that. Was she a queen like Guinivere? Or do I have to get demoted?" he laughed and she joined him.
Selenis, Luna, September 2010
Sam looked over the several scientists and engineers and the few Marine squad leaders gathered with her behind the Stargate. She indicated the galactic map Selenis was projecting in the translucent matrix over the vista of Jarvis Crater which spilled across the near distance from the crater's rim to their left, to the raised rocky ridges of the crater's central peak and the broken ridge where McNair Crater intersected Jarvis beyond it to the southeast. On the map were several slowly pulsing red circles and a few smaller blue circles around each one. The red circles represented Supergates, while the blue were locations near them which had sourced Selenis' construction materials. She had divided the men and women in front of her into several teams who would scout the locations by jumper, with the aid of the Hammond of course, over the next several weeks.
Selenis' records seemed to indicate the locations were likely sources for the raw materials necessary to manufacture the uprated power conduits and relays for Hypraxia. The teams would investigate each location for any Alteran facilities which may still exist and rank them as viable sources for their efforts. She also added to their list of priorities the sourcing of materials for the construction of Daedalus-class battlecruisers for the IOA member nations. As she mentioned this she spotted Cam coming over with the confirmation, Selenis would now become Earth's frontline shipyard.
"Hammond will ferry you to each location as detailed in Selenis' logs. Some are planetary surface mines, others are asteroid belt facilities," she glanced at the map for a moment, "one is even an interstellar dust cloud, intriguingly." She paused momentarily at the thought. "Each team is to stay in contact with Hammond regularly, let's try not to force Colonel Jeffords to come to anyone's rescue, alright, she'll have a lot of coordination to take care of as it is?" She smiled as each of the Marines nodded in amusement. "Selenis says that none of these systems have Stargates of their own, they were specially chosen by the Ancients for this reason. It is likely few, if any of them, have seen any activity since the Ancients left." She pointed at the map once more. "These aren't areas of the galaxy which saw a lot of Goa'uld activity, since they have no habitable planets." She turned back to the gathered scientists specifically. "If we're lucky the Alteran facilities and assets will be in low power stand-by mode or something similar. These are preliminary recon missions, but you will take a small stock of Alteran power cells which should be compatible with these facilities. Investigate them at your discretion if they're intact. Any questions?" She waited a beat. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen." She dismissed the teams so they could prepare to board the Hammond waiting in the hangar deck below them. Cam sidled up to her and kissed her softly while perusing the tablet computer he held.
"So we're going to be hosting some very anxious ship-builders soon, I take it? Wondering if their jobs are on the line." she jibed and he chuckled ruefully with a nod.
"Looks like the Royal Navy is bringing one of its survey vessels in for refit and recommissioning it under a new name." he said. She tilted her head and crossed her arms at the non-sequitur until she saw the glint in his eyes and her mouth gaped open. She shook her head vehemently and grabbed at his arm with her hands.
"No, Cam! You can't do this to me!" she cried and he gave her an innocent look.
"You want me to call up the Ministry of Defense of Her Royal Britannic Majesty's Government and tell them they'll have to think up a new name for their brand new spaceship?" His smile had her cringing, but she nodded emphatically, moving her hands to his chest.
"Yes! Anything to get me out of the conversation that I will surely have to have with General O'Neill when he finds out." she pleaded with him desperately, but he shook his head sadly with a soft kiss on her lips.
"Sorry, sweetness, it's a done deal." He chuckled as her head fell against his chest in dejection. "~Selenis, if you could please mark up bays for the simultaneous construction of three BC-304 battlecruisers as per the specs I gave you last month.~" The specs included ZPM harnesses and concomitant Potentia to go with them, Asgard Sensors, Transporters, Shields and Plasma beams, but not an Asgard Core, Cloak or Constructor.
"~Of course, Colonel Mitchell.~" confirmed the AI happily. "~How should I identify the new vessels?~"
"~The Condorcet, will be slated for the French. The Tsiolkovsky, for our Russian friends,~" Sam's hands tightened on the front of his BDUs, "~and HMS Enterprise, for our allies, Great Britain.~" Sam's head thumped softly against his sternum several times and he reached a hand around her back to pull her in closely.
"It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair..." she whispered barely audibly into his neck.
"~Simultaneous construction is faster, but less energy efficient. Once I have the necessary raw materials the construction of all three battlecruisers will be scheduled for full completion within 45.294 Terran days.~ Selenis burbled and Sam had to look up at that.
"~Selenis, you can build three BC-304s in six weeks?~" she asked in surprise.
"~They are very small, Dr. Carter.~" Selenis explained and Cam laughed, Sam had to hide her grin against his chest. "~If I had the luxury of building them sequentially as my sole construction project, I could build one in 33.682 Terran days and use only half the amount of power per vessel.~"
"~Also, I hope you don't mind,~" Cam paused as he realised what he just said and Sam looked up to grin at him. He glared and poked her, "~but your next four Galadia-class ships starting with Kastia will also be assigned among the IOA signatories. Please, could you arrange to build them all at once.~"
"~Certainly, Colonel Mitchell, Kastia, Durende, Jadra and Ialoderus are now scheduled for parallel construction once the Tau'ri vessels have been completed.~" Selenis acknowledged. "~Please be advised this will alter the construction time and power expenditure significantly. I project it will take 461.821 Terran days while using 169% of the typical power expenditure per vessel.~" Cam winced, but nodded.
"~We figured as much, Selenis, thank you.~" he replied, and Sam slipped her arms around his waist, looking out at the lunar surface as her head rested on his shoulder. "Well if you were worried about the IOA getting their hands on an Alteran fleet at least you don't have to worry about it for eighteen months." She closed her eyes with a rueful smile and nodded slightly. "You looking forward to heading off to Camelot once Galadia is ready?" She pulled back and looked at him with a nod.
"Hmm. I miss them, God help me, but I do." She smiled as Cam chuckled. "Vala especially, ~no offense, Selenis, but you're still not much for girl talk.~" she said while looking up towards Command and Cam laughed out loud.
"~None taken, Dr. Carter, I miss Vala too.~" burbled the computer. Cam had to cover his eyes with his hands as his shoulders shuddered with silent laughter.
"~As do I.~" came Galadia's contralto over their comms. Sam had to clasp her hands around Cam's head and pull him against her shoulder as his face was going distinctly red.
On to Chapter 5