A Sword in Agate - Chapter 6
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 | Ch 4 | Ch 5
A Sword in Agate - Chapter 6
Stargate Command, June 2005
Sam looked into her father's face as he leaned back against the bed in the infirmary, the tears had never been far from her eyes since he'd told her. He gazed back at her, his eyes filled with fatherly indulgence, as if he weren't about to die sometime in the next few hours. She held his hand in hers, the back of it pressed against her heart, she looked down at his fingers closed around her hand.
"I can't believe there's nothing they can do." she breathed, shaking her head slightly as she looked back up to meet his eyes. "They can remove a Goa'uld. In the last few years you've almost perfected the process of saving the host." Jacob nodded his head slightly before trying to explain once more.
"That process instantly kills the symbiote before it releases toxins." he breathed weakly as Sam looked down once more. "It's too late for that, Sam. I'm sorry. I hate to do this to you," he waited for her to meet his gaze once more "but I should have been dead four years ago. Since then, I've been all over the galaxy. I've done things most men never dream of." Sam gave a small rueful smile as she stroked the back of his hand with her thumb.
"I've heard that before." she whispered almost under her breath and he gave her a look. He narrowed his eyes slightly before lifting his eyebrows and nodding towards her.
"I just want to know you're gonna be happy." He watched as she blinked in surprise, unsure why he couldn't see that she was. She was getting married, to a very good man.
"I am." she declared, trying to show him how sure she was. He drew his lips together slightly and looked at her sternly.
"Don't let rules stand in your way." It was practically an order. She shook her head in confusion.
"What are you talking about?" she asked and he glanced away for a moment before looking back at her.
"You joined the Air Force because of me." he said weakly, his brow tightening. She smiled softly, still unsure what he was getting at.
"I love my job." she whispered. She wouldn't give it up for anything, she may have been drawn to the Air Force in an attempt to understand her father more, but she always had her own plans, her own ambitions, she'd accomplished many of them. He nodded and reached up to cup her cheek in his hand, running his fingers over the skin lightly.
"You can still have everything you want." he told her. She didn't know what he was talking about. Unless he meant... no, he couldn't mean that. She pushed away the thoughts of Jack which flitted through her mind.
"I do, Dad." she breathed and he sighed, looking at her indulgently. She took his hand from her cheek and held it in both of hers as she gave him a little nod. "Really." She rested her chin on his hand, tracing her thumb over the back of it. He sighed gently and looked away for a moment before turning back to look at her.
"Sammie, I need to make some calls, could you get them to bring me a phone, please?" he asked and she nodded. He must want to call Mark to say good-bye. She kissed the back of his hand and laid it back down on his stomach and got up to go talk to a nurse.
Petersen AFB Medical Center, June 2005
Cam watched impatiently as the doctor made another note in her little booklet before picking up his leg once more. Sometimes he thought she was delaying signing off on his fitness report just so she could keep torturing him. Her signature was the last thing he needed before he could get his transfer to the SGC finalised and take his shot at joining SG-1 alongside Sam. He gritted his teeth in frustration, ninety percent of the work was done, just the last ninety percent to go it seemed.
"Lt. Colonel Mitchell, please contact the front desk on extension 1000. Lt. Colonel Mitchell, please contact the front desk on extension 1000." Cameron looked up at the tannoy speaker in the physical therapy room and glanced over at the doctor man-handling his ankle in a decidedly rough manner. She shrugged and put his leg down, allowing him to walk unaided, he made sure she could see that with a glare over his shoulder as he skipped up and down theatrically much to her amusement, over to the desk in the corner. He picked up the phone and dialled the extension. "Hello, Petersen Air Force Base Medical Center, how may I help you?" came the perky female voice which had recently just sounded glumly from the tannoy.
"This is Lt. Colonel Mitchell, you just paged me?" he asked sitting down in the small seat against the wall next to the desk. He eyed his physiotherapist warily, she was definitely up to something as she huddled over her black bag over there.
"Yes, sir, we have an outside call for you, Colonel, please hold." her voice was replaced by several clicks and bumps of the computerised telephone system until he heard someone else on the line.
"Cameron? Is that you?" Cam blinked when he heard the voice, unsure why he was getting a call from him.
"Yes, sir, General Carter." he replied, automatically sitting up straighter as he spoke.
"At ease, son." Jacob joked over the line, obviously knowing how Cam would react. Cam closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, but let his shoulders slump slightly nevertheless. "I'm calling to give you some bad news, Cam-"
"Is Sam okay, sir?" Cam interrupted fiercely, nearly getting to his feet before Jacob replied.
"Uh, yes, well, no... let me finish, will you!" Cam winced at the command in the voice of his superior officer, which he now noticed sounded very weak, and offered a small apology as he sat back down. "Sam's fine. I'm not." Cam blinked several times as Jacob sighed deeply on the other end. Sam's father had been dying of cancer several years before, but after being blended with a Tok'ra symbiote that was all behind him. What could he be talking about? "I'm dying, son. There's nothing that can be done. It will happen soon and I just wanted you to know." There was a long pause as Cam had no idea what to say. General Carter was friends with his father of course, but he'd never been that close to Cam, though he had helped convince him to not quit the Air Force. He covered his mouth with his hand. Sam would be devastated. "Sam's going to need you, Cameron, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir." Cam breathed softly, his eyes beginning to sting.
"Don't let the rules stand in your way. Good-bye, son, I have to call Mark now." Jacob hung up after Cam bid his own farewell and he replaced the receiver in its cradle. He didn't take his eyes off it until his physiotherapist placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Bad news, Cam?" she asked as he looked up. He nodded.
"I need to call my friend." He picked up the phone and began dialling the SGC personnel contact number.
Stargate Command, June 2005
Sam sat in her lab, staring at a computer screen which wouldn't stay focused in front of her eyes. She closed them and covered her face with her hands. She was going to lose him. They'd just gotten to a place where she felt they could be happy as father and daughter and she was going to lose him. She'd had to call Mark earlier to tell him, and moreover to tell him he wouldn't get to Colorado Springs in time even if he left immediately. He'd had even less time to re-establish a relationship with their father than she had, and his anger at him had been fiercer than hers ever had been. Her hands pushed up into her hair and clutched at her fringe angrily as she growled in frustration. A piercing ring invaded her mind and she glared at the phone on the corner of her desk. Who the Hell was calling her? She grabbed the receiver and brought it to the side of her face.
"Who is this? What do you want?" she practically yelled into the phone, her blue eyes fierce as she slammed shut the lid of her laptop.
"Sam? It's Cameron." came the hesitant voice from the other end of the line and she blinked in surprise. He would be at Petersen, finishing up his physical therapy. She planned to go see him later in the week. Had been planning to go see him later in the week. She closed her eyes and sighed. She had no idea what she was going to do now. Her anger all slipped away at the sound of his Southern drawl and her eyes welled up in tears. "Your Dad just called me. I'm so sorry, Sam."
"Cam? I... my father? Why?" She couldn't straighten out her thoughts. Just a moment before she'd been so angry, but now she was just confused. "Cameron? Did my father..." Suddenly the tears began flowing and she couldn't stop them. Her hand covered her mouth as she hunched forward and screwed her eyes shut, taking in a shuddering breath before pulling her hand back and clutching at the receiver in both her hands with shaking fingers. "Cam, my Dad is..." she couldn't get the words out through her clenched teeth.
"I know, Sam, he said you'd need me." he said soothingly, "I will be there as soon as I can get away from this venomous harridan trying to unscrew my ankles off. OW!" She blinked in surprise at his yelp of pain. "Watch what you're doing there! Righty tighty, lefty loosey, got it?" Sam's eyes crinkled in amusement even as the tears continued to flow. "Sam, I've got to go, I have to get this quack to show me her medical degree again. OW! Damn it!" She knew by the way he said it exactly what kind of glare he was throwing at his hapless physiotherapist, her lips twisted up slightly. "Sam, I'll be there in an hour- OW! Two hours- AAH! Alright, alright... I will be there at some unspecified time in the future no later than sunset." The next thing he said was obviously meant for his doctor as it was slightly muffled as he held the receiver away from his face. "Happy? Thank you!" he grumbled something unsavoury about doctors before speaking to Sam again. "I will be there to pick you up, I promise. Will you wait for me, Sam?" She was nodding already, wiping at her eyes.
"Yes, Cameron. I'll be here. Waiting for you." she made her own promise, a slight smile playing across her lips. She whispered a soft 'bye' as he bid her farewell and hung up the phone. She took a deep breath and let it out, feeling better somehow. Cameron was coming.
Four and a half hours later she was stepping out of the base entrance into the waning light of early dusk, she had said good-bye to her father a little over an hour before and he passed away peacefully, whispering 'I love you' to her in his final moments. Jack had put his arm around her in the observation balcony while she waited for Jacob to pass, tears had been brimming all day while she waited, but wouldn't come. Jack's presence was solid, secure and caring. She'd had trouble pulling away until the time had come for her to go to her father. Afterwards she'd retreated into herself. Holed herself up in her lab and tried to will the world away. It hadn't helped.
She flashed her badge at the Sergeant on duty at the entrance and he nodded and waved her on after examining it for a moment. She walked away down the path, wondering where Cam was, he'd had her paged, but now was nowhere in sight. She turned her head and there he was. Hands stuck in the pockets of his light jacket as he gazed over the cars in the car park off in the distance. He turned his head to her, almost as if she'd called him and he came towards her a step, pulling his arms up and opening them wide. She blinked and her brows tightened as the tears just began falling and before she knew it she was in his arms, her face buried against his neck. His embrace closed around her and she clutched at the back of his jacket as the sobs wracked her shoulders. She felt his own tears roll down onto her cheek as his face tilted over hers and she pressed even tighter against him, she understood now why he was waiting so far from the entrance. They were out of sight of the guard house where they were standing.
"Let me take you home, Sam. You can't drive." he whispered into her ear as he stroked her hair gently. She nodded into his neck, but didn't pull away from him, she couldn't pull away yet. She'd break if she did. His embrace was the only thing keeping her whole right at that moment. "I've got you, Sam." he breathed softly. She didn't ever want to pull away.
USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 2,320 days relative
Sam wanted to pull back, but Vala forced her head still in the hideous contraption she'd assembled to take scans of her facial movements. She grimaced and blew air from her pursed lips, sending the locks of her fringe askew which only had her friend huffing and plastering it back with her fingers, after she'd given them a good lick of course, much to Sam's horror.
"Keep your hair out of the way, Samantha. I don't need to record that." grumbled the former smuggler turned pulp fiction auteur.
"Vala, just what do you hope to accomplish with this?" Sam asked. Vala's gaze flicked onto her eyes before returning to their task of aligning the scanner properly along its guides.
"Absolutely nothing beyond wasting my time in style." she admitted with a smirk. Sam scoffed.
"This is an awful lot of work to be considered 'wasting time.'" Sam muttered sullenly. Vala's eyes brightened as she flashed one of her patented grins.
"And yet, a waste of time is exactly what it is. Because none of it will ever have happened once you get us off this boat." Vala finished off what she was fiddling with and activated the scanner with a few quick key presses. "Now, get with the emoting already." Sam frowned at her.
"Okay, I understand that with Cam playing Lockhammer, you want me to play his love interest-" Sam was interrupted very quickly by Vala.
"She's not his love interest." she declared definitively and Sam could only gape incredulously at what was surely a bald-faced lie from her friend.
"Come on, Vala, this is me you're talking to. Jennifer van Staten is so totally hot for Cain Lockhammer's alter ego Christian Haverlock." she cried and Vala glared at her. "It's obvious! And I know she's based on me."
"No she isn't." Vala said nonchalantly while staring intently at her computer screen. Sam scoffed.
"Vala..." she muttered before she began listing off on her fingers. "She's a scientist who invents and builds all of Lockhammer's weapons, gadgets and vehicles, she solves all the scientific problems in the books, she commands his space carrier and she also has to save him on occasion."
"Coincidence." Vala muttered with a faint smile. Sam's lips drew into a tight line and she narrowed her eyes in consternation.
"Vala, it's really obvious she likes him and he likes her, I've read the first two books, remember? I read the rescue from Henniorus' temple moon." She lifted her eyebrows as she made her point and Vala turned to face her with furrowed brows.
"Only the first two books? Why not the other two?" she asked indignantly and Sam rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"Because I'm in the middle of reading the first book in your new series. You know, 'Monica Kinolta and the Legend of a Million Years'?" She looked sidelong at Vala. "The beautiful art thief who turns over a new leaf and becomes an intrepid adventurer solving the oldest mysteries in the galaxy after meeting the handsome investigative reporter, and amateur galactic historian, Jenson McKenzie."
"Yes, I'm particularly proud of those characters." Vala preened with a satisfied smile. Sam raised an eyebrow.
"I've read the first two hundred pages and I can already tell she is totally into him." said Sam to Vala's shock and dismay.
"Samantha, I do believe you have some sort of penchant for seeing romance where there is none." She turned back to her screens as Sam chuckled ruefully.
"Fine, let's stipulate for the sake of argument that I have a romance filter on my reading glasses." Sam conceded before lifting her eyebrow with a smirk. "How then, do you explain when Monica says to Jenson, and I quote, 'I so have the hots for you right now,' right after they return from the Caverns of Nierro?" Vala's fingers on the keyboard stilled for a moment before she turned to look at Sam.
"That's a perfectly normal reaction to having lived through such a harrowing experience. It was the adrenaline, the joy of living to see another day." Vala turned back, obviously deciding she'd said enough. Sam laughed out loud.
"Right. Want to know how I know you're full of it?" Sam asked. Vala raised an eyebrow in curiosity and Sam grinned evilly. "Because that's how I felt a lot of the times Cam and I had close scrapes. And I always had the hots for him." Vala gritted her teeth and looked away again while Sam laughed in triumph.
"You shouldn't taunt the author, Samantha." she warned and Sam blanched.
"You wouldn't." she breathed incredulously.
"Wouldn't I?" Vala asked with a smirk. Sam quieted for several long moments.
"Fine." She dropped the subject with a frustrated scowl. "Anyway, how come you're using my face for Dr. Van Staten, but you're voicing her." Vala shrugged a shoulder before turning around.
"First of all, I'm only using your scans to map expressions and help with animations." She tilted her head and motioned to the Core across the room with a waved hand. "I'll be generating her face and features with the help of the Asgard Core, though I admit you'll be something of a template for her." She then gave Sam an apologetic look before continuing. "Secondly... Samantha, dearest, Christian Haverlock and Dr. Van Staten are British and well, your accent is terrible." Sam gaped again before glaring.
"My accent is bad, but Cam's... you're telling me Mr. Hayseed Cornshucker can put on a better British accent than I can?" she asked incredulously.
"I wouldn't say it's good, but it has... something." Vala paused for a long moment. "Here let me play something for you." She turned back to her computer and queued up a file to play. It was Cam's voice, but the tone was clipped, intense and slightly cruel. He emphasised words oddly, but the overall effect was amazing.
"Take your sidearm out of my face, Lieutenant, or you will be forced to kill me." he growled intensely. There was a pause before he continued in a strident tone. "Mark my words, Mercator, I will find the Lance of Eridanus, then I will shove it down your throat if it's the last thing I do!" Sam was entranced. And the way he said 'lieutenant' in the way the Brits did was just wrong. Wrong, but so right. She shivered slightly and Vala queued it up to play him saying the rank again and watched her reaction.
"Oh my, Samantha." she smirked evilly and Sam reached her hand out from under the contraption she was stuck in, but couldn't reach the former smuggler. She settled for pointing at her.
"I'm warning you, Vala, keep your mouth shut. Understand?"
USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 2,824 days relative
Cameron came to the Core room in hopes of dragging Sam away for their movie night only to find her watching the first Cain Lockhammer short film that Vala had screened for them three months before. He grinned, remembering how they'd all had a great time watching the pulpy CG film with its space battles and ray gun shootouts. He remembered Sam had looked very intense during several scenes, especially where Cain was interacting with the soldiers of Duke Numio Mercator's army after being captured and forced to undertake a dangerous quest to prevent the massacre of the people of Juytrava. He also remembered he'd had a great time doing the voices for several of the characters.
He was surprised Sam hadn't noticed him yet, she was staring at her laptop very intently as it played one of those scenes in Mercator's throne room. As he approached her she pulled back the slider to play the scene over. He watched her lips moving as Cain spoke certain words and he frowned slightly in puzzlement. She pulled back the slider again and he crossed his arms with his brows furrowed. He watched her carefully then blinked. A slow smile passed over his lips. He walked up behind her and leaned down with his mouth close to her ear, then placed his hands on her shoulders which had her jumping in surprise.
"Lieutenant. Colonel. Carter. It's time for our movie night" He enunciated every word as Cain Lockhammer would, especially the way he pronounced 'lieutenant.' Sam shivered and scrunched her shoulders up before whirling around and pressing her hands to his mouth. She pushed him away as she stood up, still not taking her fingers from his lips.
"You are forbidden from speaking that way around me. Understand? Forbidden!" She pressed her forehead against her hands over his mouth and he wrapped his arms around her waist while a huge smile spread under her fingers. "I'm going to ask General Landry to promote me. I can't stand being a Lt. Colonel anymore." she whined. "It's too dangerous."
Selenis, Luna, September 2010
Sam's eyes peeked open blearily on their last morning on Selenis before they were about to set off for Camelot aboard Galadia. She lifted a hand to her eyes and pressed the heel of her palm against her closed eyelids, grumbling softly lest she wake up Cameron sleeping next to her. She froze. He wasn't sleeping. She moved her hand away and turned her head to see him leaning on an elbow watching her with that smile on his face. She narrowed her eyes. He just smiled brightly and leaned down to kiss her gently.
"Time to get up, sweetness. We've still got stuff to do this morning before we set off." He turned away to scramble off the bed and she followed more slowly. She watched his back warily as he headed for the washroom. She stood up and ran her hand through her sleep-tossed hair and padded quietly into the washroom after him. She entered, languidly stretching her arms over her head before slipping them around his waist from behind and pressing her face against the back of his neck.
"Morning, Cameron." she mumbled and he chuckled as he brushed his teeth, she smiled as she felt the rumble through his back. "Remind me again why we're going in Galadia instead of just 'gating there?"
"Hmm, 'cause Galadia's spent a grand total of eight seconds in hyperspace so far. She needs a good shakedown flight." he replied and she gave a short laugh. "What?"
"She needs a good shakedown flight?" she teased and he bristled.
"Be quiet or I'll..." he stopped and she grinned.
"You'll what?" she asked, squeezing him tight and looking at him in the mirror over his shoulder. His eyes met hers and they were dark as he bent down and rinsed his mouth before looking back up.
"You talk in your sleep sometimes." he said softly and her eyes widened in alarm. "Just this morning in fact. Were you having a dream from our time on Odyssey?" he asked. She shook her head gently. "No?" He turned around in her arms and placed both his hands on her cheeks, kissing her gently. "Shall I tell you what one of my dreams is?" His eyes glittered and she nearly bolted. "I dream that one day I'll see you with three stars on each of your shoulders." She quailed in fear and shook her head after he'd moved his hands around her lower back, holding her closely against him. "I dream of leaning in close to you and calling you Lieutenant General Samantha Carter." he intoned using Cain Lockhammer's voice, her knees buckled as she pressed her head against his chest.
"Forbidden." she whispered breathlessly as he laughed.
Galadia, Scutum-Centaurus Arm Supergate 6, September 2010
Cam felt the transition through the Supergate's wormhole as a blinding clash of micro-variances in the differential flux of the subspace/realspace boundary fields, as the deafening roar of the hypergeometric escalation in the point energy distortions throughout the event horizon photon envelope. He decided he was going to filter most of that input from Galadia's sensors the next time he did this. When he rematerialised on the other side he almost immediately pitched himself up from the seat, clutching at his head. He felt Sam at his side instantly, putting her hands on his shoulders and he leaned against her for a moment.
"Cameron, are you okay? What happened?" she asked, pushing him back and kneeling down in front of him.
"What... Galadia sees... at the event horizon..." he whispered haltingly as she pushed her hand against his cheek and brushed her fingers back into his hair. She nodded in understanding. Probably far more aware than he'd ever be of what had just been happening in his head a few moments ago. She stood and took his hands in hers.
"Come on. I'll fly us the rest of the way. You get some rest." She helped him up after he nodded and sat down in his place, the serum allowing her to activate the chair and initiate the hyperspace journey to Camelot. He sat down at one of the forward consoles and checked through some systems diagnostics. "Hmm, sweetie, how do you stop micro-managing all these systems?" He laughed and turned around in his chair.
"With great difficulty. Maybe you should order Galadia to slap your hand whenever you get too fiddly." He stood up and walked over, bending down over her, he waited for her to open her eyes to look at him before kissing her softly. He quirked an eyebrow when she smiled mischievously at him. "What?"
"Galadia just told me what you do to stop micro-managing." She grinned and closed her eyes again. He glared at her knowing full well she'd see it via the internal sensors.
"Yeah, well, if you can think of things you'd rather be doing than adjusting engine power levels every five seconds it goes a long way to alleviate the problem, doesn't it?" he muttered with a flick of her forehead. She giggled and opened her eyes again before sitting up. He helped her up out of the chair and they walked over to the forward view port to watch the rippling blur of hyperspace. "How'd you like it?" She sighed and her eyes glazed over for a moment before she turned to face him.
"Galadia is power. It was a bit scary to find out just how much." she breathed and Cam nodded, well aware of what she meant. "The ferocity just barely contained, waiting to pour out on a whim." She shook her head slightly.
"And she seems so polite." Cam murmured to Sam's chuckle.
"~The two are related, Colonel Mitchell.~" Galadia intoned and Sam laughed at Cam's wry smile. "~Being polite is even more important when one has the strength to simply forego it completely if so desired.~"
"~I know where you're coming from, Galadia.~" he admitted "~A fine point, well made. How long until we have to come out of hyperspace?~"
"~Approximately one hour, seventeen minutes and twenty-eight seconds.~" replied the AI.
"~You have a very strange definition of 'approximately', Galadia.~" Sam teased while Cam took her hand and walked towards the transporter at the rear of the bridge. He gave her a smile and she rolled her eyes. "Cameron..."
"You have a dirty mind, Samantha Carter." He poked her then used the same finger to select a location closer to the engine room. "You haven't seen the Core room yet, it's quite something." She tilted her head as they walked down a short stretch of Galadia's corridor, blue crystal glowing softly through silver and white lattice work on the walls and polished black metal underfoot. He turned towards a door which slid open at their approach and Sam gasped. Not at the Asgard Core which seemed just the same as Odyssey's and Daedalus' Asgard Cores. It was the branched crystal helix running horizontally beyond a long stretch of glass at the side of the room which had her breath hitching. The multi-hued tines delicately spiralling away from the main coil. "That's the real Galadia, one part of her. There's another helix on the port side of the ship." He smiled as she walked over and pressed her hands against the glass, seeing the coil extending far beyond either end of the Core room. Cam wasn't sure why she had never really taken a tour of Galadia before now, but he decided it was time for a small one at least.
"Cameron, those branches of crystal are still growing." she breathed, he looked over and saw one of the tines branching itself off as it slowly turned along the main axis. "She adds more matrix as she gains experience and memory." She looked over at him in astonishment.
"~That is correct, Dr. Carter. My processing and memory cortices grow as I do.~" Sam looked up at the ceiling with a smile.
"~It's beautiful, Galadia.~" Sam whispered.
"~Thank you, Dr. Carter.~" burbled the AI happily. "~Colonel Mitchell also found a way to directly bridge my Cortex to the Asgard Core. I have full access to it.~" Sam turned to look at Cam in astonishment.
"I'm sorry I ever doubted your memories from Odyssey, you really became an expert in Asgard systems." She reached over and caressed his cheek. He grinned.
"Just be glad she isn't speaking to you in Asgard. She can do that now." he muttered and Sam laughed, looking up. "Selenis' Cortex is vastly more complicated than Galadia's. I'll need your help to do the same there." he admitted and leaned back against the glass. She nodded, still awed by the view into the softly glowing chamber beyond.
He spent the next hour taking Sam around the systems he and his engineering team had upgraded. The Asgard Constructor which also included the transporter beam based upgrades she had created while in the time dilation field. The two Neutrino-Ion power cores which provided power to all the Asgard systems on board as well as supplementing the twin ZPMs Galadia typically sported. He showed her how he'd interfaced the Asgard cloaking technology with Galadia's regular shielding, thus allowing the cloak to operate while the ship was in hyperspace if necessary.
He even took her to the flight bay for a short stop, standing near to the back wall he just waved a hand and Galadia had two large panels in the floor rising and sliding apart while a third smaller one lifted back parallel to the wall. A Stargate, identical to Selenis', rose from the recess to stand upright, and the panels then slid back, thin slices from the sides of the rear panel touching the back of the metal ring while the central section and the main panels rotated and came back down where they'd been, the pattern on their reversed sides clearing indicating the extent of the unstable vortex projection area both in front and behind the Stargate.
"You didn't think Galadia was without a nine symbol address, did you?" he teased and she slapped his arm, knowing full well Galadia had to have a Stargate somewhere. "Unfortunately, Galadia relies on Selenis for her database, and since Selenis' is still a little light, so is Galadia's." The Stargate returned into its recess in a flurry of rotating dark silver metal. "She doesn't actually know how to dial more than eight symbols."
"Maybe I should jury-rig something with my dialling software from Hypraxia." she murmured and he smiled, taking her hand as they walked back towards the transporter. "Temporarily anyway." She leaned against him.
"~Dr. Carter, Colonel Mitchell, we are approaching Camelot.~" Sam's eyes brightened and she looked at Cam hopefully. He chuckled.
"You started it, you can finish it." he said and she practically skipped the last few meters to the transporter, eagerly selected the bridge and bounded towards the control chair. He moved towards the forward view and gazed out into the depths of hyperspace as it blurred past then suddenly compressed and fractured into the familiar star-speckled blackness of realspace. He flicked his eyes over to the left and saw the deep greens and browns of Camelot growing larger as Galadia slid into an equatorial orbit. "Very nice, baby. For your first time controlling it, that was perfect." She chuckled from behind him as she rose up from the chair.
"Remember, Cam," she pointed at him, "five percent," she pointed to herself, "ten percent." She laughed as he gave her a mock-glare. "Admittedly I wasn't trying to hit the Kármán line from seven and a half astronomical units out," she burbled proudly as she slid her arms around his waist, "that was some real flying, sweetie. I never told you how much that impressed me." He could feel his ears burning as she leaned closer and kissed him deeply. She pulled her lips back and let her temple rest against his cheek. "I want to say Daniel can wait another few minutes, but if he ever found out he'd be furious." Cam laughed and took the hint, raising a hand and touching the comm in his ear.
"Jackson, this is Mitchell, come in." he called and stroked Sam's hair as she leaned against him.
"Mitchell, Sam? Just hang on a sec, um... don't come down yet." Cam looked at Sam with an evil grin and she frowned.
"Cam, no, what if he and Vala-" she began before he shook his head.
"You really do have a dirty mind. No, sweetness." he interjected. "It's well after High Sun down there, he's probably with some of the locals and giving them the 'there is no magic' speech before we beam down." She thought about it for a moment until a slow smile spread across her lips. "~Galadia, beam us down to Dr. Jackson's coordinates, please.~"
"~Of course, Colonel Mitchell.~" she intoned and they were enveloped by the familiar white sheen of the Asgard transporter as Sam leaned away from Cameron slightly. He grinned as he saw Daniel dragging a hand across his face after they materialised in front of a giggling Vala and slightly smirking Teal'c to be greeted by the wide eyes of Meurik and Valencia inside Merlin's library.
"You and your damn timing, Mitchell."
On to Chapter 7