The Patience of Kings - Chapter 8

[alvericff]

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 | Ch 6 | Ch 7

The Patience of Kings - Chapter 8

Petersen AFB Medical Center, Colorado Springs, July 2004

"You crazy son of a bitch," she said softly as she looked down at him lying in the hospital bed surrounded by the infernal noise of the heart and respiration monitors, "I can't believe you did that, Cameron." She walked to the wall and pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down in it, looking over at his still features as she had every few days for the last couple of weeks. She frowned as a wave of anger and guilt washed over her and she pushed at his ribs with a finger. "Don't think I don't know you're just faking it to avoid my wrath, Mitchell, if you weren't already lying there all broken I'd kick your ass myself, understand? And when you get out of here I am going to kick your ass!" She glared at him for a long moment before closing her eyes and leaning back in the chair. She chewed on her lower lip as the anger drained from her, leaving only a deep fear which bubbled over with pangs of relief.

"I just don't understand... what were you thinking, Cam?" She sobbed. "What would I do if you had died, huh? Did you even think about that? You didn't, did you?" she growled. "When I flew on your wing you were the same way. Did you think I wouldn't notice the way you flew with me? Always covering me while I flew lead, protecting me." She raised a hand to cover her eyes and took in a slow breath. "Don't you get it, Cameron? How I feel when you do these things? And you walk around with that damn smile and look at me with those damn eyes and you just expect me not to get mad at the incredibly stupid risks you take. Well, I can't do that!" She grabbed his hand with hers. "Not with you. How can I not feel my heart clenching in pain when I see your 302 streaking through the sky on fire?"

She shook her head as the memories of his F302 flying in between her Tel'tak and that last Al'kesh and forcing it to veer away, then getting shot down by the glider which had been shadowing him the whole time. How her heart had stopped beating in her chest for long seconds while she watched the damaged craft falling and ploughing into the snow below. And as if that wasn't enough, she later had to watch Jack looking up at her from that chair in the outpost, his eyes almost blank, his mind shutting down with the weight of the knowledge of the Ancients taking control of him. Her heart and soul felt like they were being crushed in a vice because she was losing them both. When she pushed Jack into the stasis chamber and watched it crystallise over him, locking him in time, she'd been left to wonder if Cam was frozen in a different way up on the surface with no way of knowing either way. She covered her mouth with her other hand and gazed down at him. She reached over and pushed lightly at his fringe, just feeling the softness of his hair against her fingers.

"Why don't you know, Cameron?" She paused, her voice breaking, her hand squeezing his. "How have you never seen it?" She lifted his hand up to her cheek. "Can't you tell?" A sob escaped from her lips. "Ever since the Academy I've been... since that first day... no one has made me feel the way-" She stopped and blinked back the tears as they welled up in her eyes only for them to roll down over his fingers as she held them against her cheek. She looked across his bed and out the window at the deep blue summer sky for several seconds then closed her eyes wondering why she was feeling what she was feeling right at that moment. Wondering why her heart felt like it wanted to just split right down the middle if she didn't let the words fall from her lips. Words she could never take back. It didn't matter that he was unconscious and couldn't hear them. If she let those words out, admitted them even to an empty room, to any space other than her own heart and her own mind, she would lose any control she still had over her feelings. Those words would own her and she could not... dared not... let them out.

The next day she was rushing down the corridor of the medical center after having received a call from Cam's doctor. She skidded to a stop in front of the door to his room, which stood open to show him lying back in the slightly raised bed. His eyes were open and he was looking off to his left, out the window at the wide summer sky, though his neck was almost immobilised by a brace. She stepped into the room hesitantly and even though he made no move to look at her she could tell he was aware of her presence as the ghost of a smile brushed along his lips.

"Hey Sam." he croaked in a raspy voice. "How are you?" He finally turned his blue eyes on her and her brows tightened. She walked towards him slowly and pulled the chair from the wall to sit by his bed.

"Ass. I'm fine. How are you?" She reached over and pushed his fringe away from his face slightly. He smiled at her weakly.

"Better for seeing you." he replied and she felt her cheeks heating up. "They say I've been here a couple of weeks already. It's fuzzy." She nodded slowly and he frowned very slightly. "I remember... being told about Adam." She tilted her head wondering how he'd remembered that, he'd been drifting in and out of a semi-comatose state for the past week. The reason the doctor had called her was because he was finally lucid and had asked after her almost immediately. He looked at her with a worried gaze. "How's the rest of your team?" Her brows tightened as she gripped the sheets on his bed between her fingers.

"Um, I suppose they're all fine, though Jack's in stasis and if we take him out he'll die." She held a hand up to her mouth and he frowned sadly. He drew his lips tight and slowly lifted his hand. Her eyes widened and she reached over to take it in hers and felt him squeezing her fingers weakly.

"Was going to try to caress your cheek." he grumbled and she had to smile at how adorable it was, his desire to comfort her while he lay there. He may have been all broken inside, but he was still the same old Cameron. She pulled his hand closer and held the palm in place across her cheek as she had done the day before. He smiled and her tears began to fall when she felt his thumb begin to move lightly across her skin. "He'll be fine, Sam. Just gotta get him to the Asgard, right?" She closed her eyes and nodded.

"I'm more worried about you, Cameron, I don't know if your doctor told you, but-" she stopped when he nodded slightly.

"He told me." he breathed and she couldn't help looking down and crying just a little harder. "I'm not going to give up, Sam." She glanced back up to his eyes and saw them shining in the summer light. Bluer than she'd seen in a long time as he turned his head very slightly and looked back out the window. "I'm going to walk. I'm going to run. I'm going to fly." He smiled faintly then turned back to her slowly. "I need you to be patient with me, Sam. I won't give up, so please, wait for me." She pulled his hand back from her cheek and held it in both of hers, squeezing it hard as she lowered her head down on top of their clasped hands.

"I will, Cam. I promise."

Galadia, above Camelot, September 2010

Sam turned over and wrapped an arm across Cam's waist as she snuggled up behind him in their bed. She smiled as she pressed her cheek against his back and felt his contented rumbling when he ran his hand along her arm and laid it atop hers over his chest, entwining their fingers together.

"~Dr. Carter, Colonel Mitchell, there is a call for you from Dr. Jackson on the planet's surface.~" Galadia intruded into the pleasant calm they'd just been sharing. Cam groaned and Sam began to chuckle.

"Don't answer it. The damn fool wouldn't go to sleep last night so he can deal with Vala's wrath his own self." Cam muttered into his pillow and Sam laughed out loud. She turned over and reached for the comm which was lying on the low platform which slid out of the wall behind their wide, retractable bunk. The Captain's Quarter's, they called it. The largest set of personal quarters on board, set just ahead and below of the the Observation Deck amidships, the quarters were a semicircular wedge with windows all along the arc, the semicircle was divided into three sections by interior walls which separated the space into a bedroom with bathing facilities, a large central sitting room and finally a kitchen and utility rooms. Sam waved her hand and the arc of windows on her side of the bed became semi-translucent, allowing a shaded view of Camelot hanging off to the left. She edged her legs off the bunk and sat up, slipping the comm in her ear. She giggled when Cam turned over and slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, she turned her head and kissed him gently, which seemed to placate him slightly, he propped himself up on an elbow and she leaned her head back against his raised side and smiled when he began to stroke her hair slowly. She finally managed to press the comm stud.

"Good morning, Daniel. Have you been to bed yet?" she asked while interlacing her fingers across her/Cam's pyjama top, under her breasts.

"Ah, morning, Sam. Did I wake you guys? Sorry, I guess we lost track of time down here." Sam blinked and glanced over at Cam.

"Is Vala with you?" Cam asked, knowing Daniel would hear him.

"Yes, we've been collating these various references since we came back from dinner with Meurik. Working on some sort of chronology." he replied. Sam raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Jackson, that was ten hours ago. Are you telling me Vala voluntarily pulled an all-nighter to help you collate." he asked incredulously.

"Quiet, Cameron!" Vala's indignant voice piped in over the comm. "I'll have you know I can collate with the best of them." Sam giggled.

"No offense meant, Vala, I just know how much you like your beauty sleep." Cam joked.

"Just keep digging, Cameron." the former smuggler went on and he laughed.

"So you guys have been putting together a chronology?" Sam interjected, bringing them back on track.

"Right, and it makes no sense. You should come see this." Daniel replied and Sam grumbled, starting to rise up off Cameron's chest, only for him to put a hand on her shoulder and pull her back down. She looked over and smiled at the look in his eyes. He reached over and took the comm out of her ear, holding it to his mouth.

"We'll be down in thirty, Jackson." he said. Sam lifted an eyebrow at him. "Make that an hour." She grinned and scooted off the bed, heading for the washroom and what promised to be a very pleasant bath. Cam tossed the comm onto the bed without bothering to wait for a reply and followed after her.

Sixty-two minutes later, a very relaxed Sam was slouching against Cameron in the high backed bench in Merlin's Library while she slipped another spoonful of blue jello into her mouth. Daniel had found a tall vertical writing board from somewhere and had pinned a large piece of paper to it with a time line running down the middle of it. At the bottom of the page was written the word 'NOW' while the top was cut off indistinctly with a dashed line. Notches spread along the line at various points with several clustered and braced as a unit with the mark 'Arthur's Court - c. late 5th cen. AD'. Included among them were smaller marks listed 'Battle of Ar Domûn' and 'Return of the Queen' and 'Journey to the Agate Seat'. Higher up the page was a mark labelled 'Merlin retrieves key from Muranis - c. 2nd cen. BCE'. Daniel was rubbing his bleary eyes while looking at the page and Vala was seated on a comfortable chair next to their bench, dozing lightly. Teal'c walked in with a ponytailed Valencia in tow. They each held padded staves and Valencia sported a light sheen of sweat. Sam saw Cameron smiling at each of them. As soon as they walked in, Vala's eyes shot open and she whipped her head around.

"Valencia!" she cried sniffing the air and the younger woman smiled, producing a shallow cloth-covered basket and handing it to the raven-haired woman. "Oh, you're a life saver!" she burbled and whipped the cloth off to reveal an assortment of fragrant breads and fruits.

"Still warm from Old Padraig's." Valencia declared and propped her staff up against a bookshelf as she found herself a seat on some steps. Cam reached his arm around Sam and touched his wrist, producing a pair of towels from the pocket dimension which he tossed to the young Camelot native and Teal'c, who had seated himself at a chair around the table. Daniel turned to face them all and was about to open his mouth when he blinked.

"Teal'c, Valencia, when did you get here?" Everyone laughed at him and he glared back and waved them away. "Whatever. This is what I was talking about earlier, Sam. All the stories place Merlin's first setting off to Muranis at around the mid-point of the heyday of Arthur's Court. That's when all the stories referencing a band of warriors seem to come from too. And Galadia confirmed that the most recent biological activity on Muranis is at about this time as well." He tapped the end of his marker next to the cluster of notches near the center of the page "However, Merlin told us he took the Key from Muranis seven centuries before this visit." He underlined the top note with his marker. Cam pressed his comm stud.

"~Galadia, how confident are you of your biological particulate analysis from Muranis?~" he asked. Valencia smiled when she heard him, Sam knew she found it fascinating that they could all speak the language of Merlin and his ancestors.

"~There is a 0.032% chance that my analysis may be inaccurate by up to two years on either side of the estimate.~" Galadia replied in everyone's comm.

"Joseph and Mary, I'm less confident tomorrow is going to be a day ending in a 'Y'." Cam muttered and motioned for Daniel to continue.

"Right, so the chances that Galadia is wrong are vanishingly small." Daniel said while tapping the board with his finger. "Which puts Merlin's date for his retrieval of the key at odds with all the legends about when he travelled to Muranis." Cam snorted and Sam smiled slightly. Daniel glared at them. "What?"

"This is why you should go to bed early and get a proper night's rest like a good little boy, Jackson." Cam jibed and Sam slapped at his hand lightly with her spoon. Daniel's frown deepened and Vala joined in. "T-man, do the honours, would ya?" Teal'c stood up and walked to the board, taking the marker from the increasingly confused archaeologist. He put the point down at the notch marked 'NOW' and drew an arc up the page which curved back through the middle of the cluster of notches labelled as 'Arthur's Court'. He didn't stop there, instead continuing the line through to the other side to make another arc up the page to the notch at the top, then forming a hook through it and stopping the line with a nice little arrow. Daniel blinked at the timeline then stared at them with wide eyes.

"We have a DeLorean, Daniel." Sam said brightly.

Kariala, Trisecti 1422 AL (Lantean years after Exodus)

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" cried Cameron as he stepped up to her. "Who the Hell are these guys?" Sam shook her head in disbelief at the scene before her. She'd only arrived moments before Cam to find Ilemus on his haunches with his hands bound behind his back and a tall man holding him down with a hand on his shoulder while another couple of similarly dressed men glowered at them from off to the side. She turned to stare at the Stargate, lying flat on several load-bearing arms with a large silver spike rising from the black tiled floor through its center. A glance to her right revealed several triple-ended, lustrous silver panels which fanned out in an arc around the 'gate from one side of the room to the other, control consoles which were, of course, inert.

Behind the spiked Stargate she could see the length of Kariala's needle point extending out to the distant stars while Prinpare Domunis hung behind the mirrored hook which curved past the translucent walls of the jumper bay above their heads. She could now see the lines on the surface weren't cracks, but gaps between individual hexagonal panels. The reason the surface had appeared to ripple before was that each panel could move independently and were currently all pointing in different directions in their unpowered state. Some form of focusing device? Perhaps to bathe the city in sunlight?

A tall, dark-haired woman dressed in long robes, which darkened in hue from lavender at the neck to dark indigo at the hem, swept into the space formed by the angled silver panels from behind Ilemus and paused near him to look down into his face. She gave him a sneer before continuing on her way to stand and gaze out over the towers below and the hollow valley stretching out past them.

"~I must congratulate you and your fellow councillors, Ilemus.~" She chuckled mirthlessly for a moment and then was quiet for several long seconds. "~We knew it would be difficult, destroying these works of yours, but you surpassed yourselves.~"

"~We weren't leaving these behind, Anmorgias. The Indesta could have no reason to attack our facilities.~" Ilemus said softly as he shifted slightly from side to side. Sam watched as Cam frowned and moved towards the windows to look hard into the woman's face. Memorising it. Sam sighed softly.

"~You're a poor liar, Ilemus. You may not have been leaving these for the next evolution in Avalon, but you would have left them in Selerinus.~" She turned to look at Ilemus over her shoulder. "~We know that you seek ascension.~"

"~What was to happen in Selerinus was no longer a concern of the Indesta!~" Ilemus declared angrily, only for the man behind him to shake his shoulder hard. "~Thyilea is your home now, we went our separate ways for just this reason.~" Anmorgias laughed slightly and turned around, her flowing robes billowing softly as she clasped the fingers of her hands together at her waist.

"~Yes, you are right, my brethren have chosen to allow this stupidity to occur. The Children of Thyilea in Exile however, do not.~" She stepped forward towards Ilemus and lifted up his face to look down into his eyes.

"Liherri Thyla Exsultas." Cam repeated softly. "Jackson's gonna want to hear about this." Sam nodded, concentrating on what was happening ahead of her.

"~There will be a clean slate, Ilemus. We will brook no corruption of the experiment.~" Anmorgias breathed gently. "~Here or in Lantica.~" Ilemus frowned as she smiled. "~Oh, we'll allow you to pass on Atlantus I suppose, we don't have much of a choice in that regard anymore.~" She walked back towards the windows to look out over Kariala. "~However, Selenis is another matter.~" Sam looked over at the sound of several booted feet as men and women in dark purple uniforms, much like Ilemus' guard's attire, marched in with Artros, Larensera and a stumbling, doubled-over Jenavia in their grip. The three Alterans were forced to kneel down in front of Ilemus, facing Anmorgias and the spiked Stargate she stood behind. A tall man with jet black hair and a stately demeanour, which Sam found strangely familiar, approached her and whispered to her lightly. She frowned heavily at whatever he said and waved him away. She turned again to look beyond the transparent matrix. "~Medravus tells me you have put Muranis and Selenis beyond our reach. Again I must commend you. They do not have addresses we can dial, so you will tell me what I need to know to dial them.~"

"~Tell them nothing, Ilemus.~" said Artros through gritted teeth. For his trouble he received an elbow strike to the shoulders, which sent him sprawling. He grimaced in pain, but still managed to gasp out a further sentence. "~No matter what, understand?~" Sam glanced at the anguish evident on Ilemus' face as tears welled up in his eyes. Anmorgias sighed and turned around.

"~To be honest, I don't care if you tell me or not. If they are beyond our reach then they will certainly be beyond the reach of whatever pathetic descendants follow you in this galaxy.~" she murmured while taking a rod which Medravus held proffered for her. "~Only... if you tell me now... then I will not have to do what I am about to do.~" She walked in front of each Alteran in turn and gazed down at them. She lifted Jenavia's head and smiled at her gently before letting it drop again. The young engineer was clearly at her limit of exhaustion and pain. Larensera glared fiercely at the dark-haired Indesta, who just smirked at her before moving on. She motioned for the man and woman behind Artros to lift him back up off the floor and her face lit up in a pleasant smile. "~My dear Artros, you cannot want me to do this, I mean, what about us? Do you really want to forget me?~" He growled at her in disgust as she ran a finger along his cheek. She stood up straight and looked at Ilemus dispassionately. "~You know where we are, Ilemus. You know what is still down on that world.~" She pointed up and out the windows at the planet hanging above them. "~I will strip them of everything they are and I will send them through the First Gate unless you tell me what I wish to know.~" Ilemus blanched in horror and shook his head. Artros snarled angrily while Larensera looked over at Jenavia as the young woman leant slightly in her direction. "~I am not a monster, I will make sure they arrive somewhere... civilised.~" She laughed for several moments before piercing Ilemus with a hard look.

Sam felt Cam sidle up to her and she almost slumped against him as his hand found its way around her waist. She turned to look at him and he shook his head sadly until she lifted a hand to her mouth and turned her head again to witness what was about to happen. Ilemus wanted them to see this.

"~I will tell you nothing.~" Ilemus whispered. Anmorgias held the baton at Larensera's temple and a bright flash of white light emerged from the end to surround her head. Jenavia screamed and Ilemus closed his eyes and hung his head. After a few moments the light dissipated, leaving Larensera blinking and looking around in fear and confusion. Ilemus took a long shuddering breath. "~I will tell you nothing.~" he repeated in an even lighter voice. Anmorgias frowned darkly and glanced at Jenavia, who was crying softly as she tried in vain to move closer to the soldier next to her. She then turned her gaze to Artros and steeled herself, turning at the waist to point the baton at him. He looked up at her and straightened his back as much as he could against the two who held him down.

"~I'm sorry, Artros.~" she breathed before the light enveloped his head and she turned away and held a hand up to her eyes. Ilemus shuddered and shook as tears rolled down his cheeks. "~Take him. I cannot bear to see the look in his eyes.~" Anmorgias ordered without turning. Her guards picked up the Praediae by the arms and led him out as he blinked stupidly at his surroundings. "~One last chance, Ilemus.~" she whispered.

"~Do it! You foul WITCH!~" Jenavia screamed at the top of her lungs. "~You can't hurt me anymore! DO IT!~" She tried to turn to face Ilemus, but her guards pushed her forwards again. "~Don't tell them anything, Ilemus! Do you hear me? If you tell them, I will never forgive you!~" Ilemus flinched at each and every word before rising up on his haunches and looking directly at Anmorgias' back. She turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"~I will tell you nothing.~" he declared in a steady voice. The Indesta frowned at him and pointed the baton at Jenavia. Never taking her eyes from Ilemus as the light skipped from the end of the rod to spin and whirl around the young Alteran's head. Ilemus watched it all without looking away, not even when Jenavia slumped forward and lay down on the ground with her wavy brown hair spilling over her face.

"~Take them.~" Anmorgias ordered as she handed the rod back to Medravus and swept out of the room. "~They have new lives ahead of them.~"

Sam buried her face in Cam's neck and wept as he stepped in front of her and pulled her into his arms.

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Cameron sat off to the side of their staging area as Colonels Dixon and Reynolds briefed the SG teams on their plans. Captain Lewis was still typing away at Sam's laptop which he'd only let her have after making absolutely clear to her she should keep her nose out of the private stuff. The young redhead had seemed amused and he glared at her for it. He sat on a case leaning against the side of one of the vans with his arms crossed over the chest of his dress blues and his leg bouncing up and down like a steam engine's push-rod.

"Antsy?" Daniel asked as he and Vala walked up. Cam snorted at his friend while Vala sat down next to him on the weapons case and leant her head on his shoulder. Teal'c approached from the opposite direction to stand next to the linguist.

"Like you wouldn't believe. You owe me for this, Sam." he muttered for her benefit as she and Reynard were heading back to the cell to swipe her keycard in the reader to signal the control room and allay any suspicion. He frowned. "Don't roll your eyes." He heard a soft giggle in his ear and knew he'd been right.

"Okay, this is almost as disturbing as the silent communication thing." Daniel said with a cringe. Vala giggled.

"They've got to want to take her off-world, right?" Cam asked with a wave of his hand up over his head. "So why haven't they?" He brought his hand back down and bit into the knuckle of his thumb.

"Coordination." Teal'c offered. "They must coordinate their efforts with other parties, likely off-world."

"They might not have ready access to a ship and are trying to get one sent." Vala tried then shook her head. "No, they'd wait until they had one before even trying to snatch her."

"Unless they didn't have time." Daniel pointed out. They each glanced at him. "C'mon, guys, how much time have we actually spent on Earth this year?" Cam widened his eyes a moment in recognition of his point. He heard Sam grunting a little confirmation as well.

"There was an opportunity and they seized it," Teal'c added to Daniel's nod, "that is most astute, Daniel Jackson."

"So they don't have a ship... yet." Cam concluded to general agreement. "The imminent operation thing, though."

"The ship is likely already on its way, Colonel Mitchell, and has been for some time." Teal'c said and Cam nodded. "Under cloak through hyperspace to avoid any possible detection."

"I knew going dancing with politicians would be a bad idea." he muttered and Sam almost couldn't suppress a chortle in his ear, he heard a loud thump and winced. Sam must have tapped the bud. "Sorry, Sam."

"Colonels." Riley's call had everyone turning to look at her. "I've identified something that looks like it might be some sort of landing beacon. It just started sending out low frequency pulses."

"Where, Captain?" Cam asked as he stood up and walked over. She read some information off the laptop's screen then turned to another computer which had a satellite image of the airfield displayed on it. She pointed at a spot at the north end of the runway.

"Here, sir." she tapped her finger on the screen. "I don't think it's a coincidence it's right by this outbuilding." She moved her finger over to a single storey shed just off the runway itself.

"Underground tunnels." Cam muttered and she nodded. They all turned around when Sam's laptop beeped. Riley frowned and walked over.

"The interval between pulses is getting shorter." she muttered.

"A countdown?" asked Dixon.

"I think so, sir." she replied and sat down to start typing again. "We have four, maybe five minutes to continuous tone." she looked up and Cam cursed, looking at the map.

"We can't get a team that far away in four minutes. We have to breach now." Reynolds declared. Cam heard Sam's intake of breath.

"No." he ordered for her. "I promised Sam her chance and we only go when she says go." He looked around at the men and women clustered around the portable tables. "The intel she gets in the next five minutes could be crucial."

"Mitchell, we can't get guys there in time, that's at least a ten or twelve minute hike and according to the fox woman they got itty-bitty trains in those tunnels." Dixon growled. Cam should have known the spec ops veteran's heavily redacted time in French-speaking west Africa would count for something.

"I can get there." he said, flashing the keys to the Fireblade. "Get your men in position, Dix, Reynolds. I will signal when Sam calls it."

"Crazy bastard." Dixon grumbled before turning around and nodding to Al Reynolds next to him. "Let's make sure we've got their asses covered." The leader of SG-3 nodded at both men and Cam turned to his friends.

"Go with them." he ordered and they nodded. Teal'c came to stand by him for a moment and gripped his upper arms. "I won't let them get away, T." The Jaffa bowed slightly and let him go. "SG teams, you are on the clock." Cam declared as he took a pair of wirecutters that someone shoved into his hands and slipped them into the strip of light. He walked toward the Honda and climbed on.

"Colonel?" called Captain Lewis as he turned the motorcycle's engine over. "I'll only take down their defenses when you give the order, sir. Don't cut the fence until then." He nodded and sped away down the road to the path he'd followed along the treeline, it was bumpy and really dangerous on a sport bike, but he wasn't going to let her down.

Abandoned airfield near Colorado Springs, September 2010

Sam scratched lightly at the skin of her wrist around the plastic tie. She bit her lip at the idea of Cam speeding down a trail on a big 1000cc Fireblade. Those things were built for the track not the dirt. She steeled herself, reminding herself that Cam was a good rider, remembering the times they'd gone out on her '47 Indian Chief and his '71 Moto Guzzi California. He'd be there to cover her six when the time came. He'd promised her.

"I can't believe you're doing this." Reynard whispered from behind her as they walked down the corridor after getting off the small transit car which sped them through the tunnel between the bunker and the control tower. "We could have been long gone already." Sam chuckled.

"You have to understand something, Tanis. I'm not going to let them get away with this. And to do that I need as much information as I can get my hands on." she said over her shoulder with an edge of steel in her soft voice.

"You're crazy. We could have gotten away right after you broke out of your cell. Now we're right in the middle of them," she flicked at Sam's arm, "and you're tied up again." Sam stopped and turned around to face her, noting there weren't a lot of Lucian Alliance mercenaries around.

"Calm down, Reynard." She glared at the woman who seemed to be panicking slightly. Time on that prison colony really did seem to have changed her. "I'll get you out of this. So stick by me and do as I say." Tanis snorted and laughed.

"How can you say that?" she asked in a piercing whisper. "You're alone, tied up and I might not know where you're hiding that gun of yours, but I know it won't be enough against Tergali's men." Sam tilted her head to the side and cocked her hip out.

"I never said I was alone, or that the CZ 85 was the only gun I had." She turned around again and started walking, smiling when she heard Reynard only begin to follow her again after several moments.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"I meant what I said in the car. Colonel Mitchell isn't dead." she said with a pointed look over her shoulder. Reynard looked at her with wide eyes and a slight gape of her mouth. They walked in to the control room at the base of the tower to see Tergali growling in frustration at one of his men.

"Find Ger'to already! He should have been back ages ago. He was right behind us." He waved away the man, who dashed off, and turned to face Sam. "Ah, Dr. Carter. I don't believe I've mentioned it yet, that is a lovely dress." He leered and she grimaced.

"Yes, it was. You owe me a new one." She turned to look over at Tanis. "We were having a wonderful evening until you guys showed up, and believe me, the night wasn't over for me." She glared at Tergali and he laughed.

"Very good, Dr. Carter. I like your spirit. The spirit of the Tau'ri!" he declared as he sat down by a console with a large screen over it and waved his hand vaguely out in front of him. "Not like the rest of the people out there in the galaxy. Broken and frightened after centuries of enslavement at the hands of whoever held the biggest stick at the time." He leaned back and looked her up and down. "So tell me, how do you know me?" Sam shrugged.

"I see a lot of files crossing my desk." she replied indifferently. "I'm just a scientist, but all information could be vital when solving problems." He laughed.

"You're not just a scientist, Dr. Carter." He glanced over at a tech who wandered up and handed him a note. He nodded and the man walked off. "You're the scientist. Very valuable to my employer." He looked at her again. "And it wasn't that long ago you were a Colonel in your Air Force, no? I had to duck very quickly when you were shooting at my SUV." Sam shrugged again. "Well, I'll find out eventually. In the meantime my employer wants a word with you." He waved at the tech and the large screen behind him lit up to reveal a split screen with Masim on one side and a very familiar looking Aschen on the other.

"Oh, hello, Borren. How very lovely to see you again." she growled and heard Cam growling in her ear as well.

"Major Carter." he greeted her dispassionately.

"Just Doctor will do, I retired." She sighed. "Maybe I should send out a galactic press release." She smirked again and decided she may as well go all out and channel Jack. "So how've you been? How's Mollem doing?" The Aschen tilted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"He is dead, Dr. Carter." he intoned. "He was in the research facility we set up on Belsi tasked with researching the addresses we retrieved from the computer you gave us." Sam rolled her eyes.

"Now why did you go and do that for? How could you not have figured out the addresses we gave you were bogus?" She shook her head in amazement. "I wasn't carrying a piece of paper with the Volian word for 'sterility' on it just for my amusement. We were on to you."

"We took precautions." Borren began. "We simply did not anticipate what you were capable of." She rolled her eyes at that.

"That's rich, coming from you." she muttered and looked over at Masim. "Do you know who you've gotten into bed with? What the Aschen do to other worlds?" Masim had seemed vaguely amused by the interplay he was witnessing up to that point.

"I know they don't do that anymore." Masim stated and Sam scoffed. "Oh, I assure you, Dr. Carter. My friends, the Aschen, are motivated by a higher calling now." She narrowed her eyes at him. "However that is not why we are interested in speaking with you."

"If you wanted to talk you could have just called, made an appointment." she said and he laughed.

"Yes, the Tau'ri spirit. You are right, Tergali. It is invigorating." He turned from looking down slightly to looking back at the center of the screen. "We will talk, Doctor, but after that we will work." She frowned. "I believe you know my daughter boarded an Ancient ship called Destiny several of your weeks ago. I have not heard from her since." Sam wasn't about to tell him anything about that. "I assure you, you will enjoy working with us to re-establish contact with Destiny. And when our work is done you will help the Aschen and their partners." Borren looked to the left slightly with a disapproving look.

"We will require your services, Dr. Carter." Borren explained in spite of his disapproval. "Destiny carries aboard it something very special. Something we have promised to retrieve." Sam's brain was working in ultra high gear and she nearly missed Cam's little comment.

"Whoa, honey, I can hear you whirring from here. Just take it easy. Let me know when they cut comms and we'll hit 'em then." She thanked fate and kismet and karma and everything else she could think of for sending her a man who could practically read her mind.

"The ship will be there shortly, Tergali. Get Dr. Carter aboard and make sure she's comfortable." Tergali nodded when a tech approached and whispered in his ear. Masim was about to sign off, but she didn't have everything she needed yet. She flicked her gaze from him to Borren and saw the Aschen was about to order his communications to be cut as well. She grimaced.

"So does this mean I'll get to meet one of the Indesta?" she asked, trying to hide the vague note of desperation in her voice. She was rewarded with Borren betraying as much emotion as she'd ever seen on the face of an Aschen, he grew even paler as his eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Bonanza.

"Where have you heard that name?" he asked weakly and Sam shrugged. She then smiled when she heard Cam cheering nearly silently.

"She shoots, she scores! And the crowd goes wild!" She schooled her features as best she could.

"A question she can answer later at our leisure, Borren." Masim grumbled with a troubled look in his eyes. "Get her on that ship as soon as it touches down, Tergali." he ordered of his man.

"Yes, Masim, I have word it has already landed." Tergali turned to a technician and flicked his head and the screen went dark.

"Oh, I was enjoying that chat." she said and Cam was immediately calling orders into the radio. Almost instantly things started happening all around her. Men and women called out in surprise and ran to and from different stations.

"Tergali! The defense perimeters are going down one by one!" cried one of the techs from a console and the Lucian Alliance mercenary strode over.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded and he froze as he looked at a screen to see lights flashing from green to red in sequence all across a plan of the compound. "Sound the alert. We're being attacked! Contact Masim and tell him." The tech shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't, communications are down as well." Tergali glared at him in disbelief before turning around and striding over to Sam. He signalled for the man by the door behind them, the one whose nose she'd broken earlier that night.

"Yesta, Reynard, take her to the Terminal, we're leaving." Sam saw the man Tergali had sent off earlier in search of the Jaffa, returning with a shrug of his shoulders for his boss. Tergali cursed. "The Tau'ri must have followed and captured Ger'to and made him talk." Sam laughed when both the men grabbed her by the arms and began to muscle her out the door.

"I told you,Tergali, Colonel Mitchell isn't dead." She pierced him with a glare and a fierce grin. The mercenary growled and stalked away ahead of them all. She locked her eyes on Reynard and gave her a look trying to tell the woman to calm down. The other woman nodded slightly while making a show of pointing the zat at her.

"Unless your Colonel Mitchell can fly he'll never get from the main buildings to the Terminal before we will." called out Tergali as they hurried back to the tunnel and climbed aboard one of the small transit cars which sped off along its tracks.

On to the Epilogue