"Would you care to take a gander at one of our latest acquisitions?"
"Sure. I'll take a gander."
Colonel Jack O'Neill couldn't help letting a bit of sarcasm fill his voice as he stared at Newman and the rest of Maybourne's crew gathered in front of the Stargate. Mere minutes ago he had gated from Earth to Edora then to this nameless planet somewhere in the galaxy. All because someone, or rather Colonel Maybourne and his ilk were stealing artifacts from Earth's allies.
Now he was standing before the thieves and traitors. Maybourne and his people were seriously endangering Earth's alliances and friendship with their alien allies. And that had to be stopped.
"This way, Sir." Newman gestured with a broad wave of his arm, stepping aside to let the Colonel take the lead.
O'Neill walked into another room, just off the gateroom. Metal shelves lined the wall, filled with strange alien artifacts. A woman stood in front of a worktable with another alien device resting on the table. She tapped a few commands into the laptop positioned to her right causing the device to rise off the table. It hovered in the air several inches from the surface.
The woman turned to face him and he felt a jolt go through him. Desire, lust, appreciation, whatever it was, she caught his attention immediately. There was no ignoring this woman. Beautiful and sharp. Her bright blue eyes missed nothing as they focused on him. Her gaze was unwavering as she studied him. Intelligence and determination shone in her eyes. Short, wavy blonde hair was mussed slightly. A snug black tank top hugged her breasts, while dark brown pants emphasized her rounded hips. All told, a nicely put together woman. One that made him ache with desire as he shifted his eyes back to her face.
A small smile crossed her face, showing she didn't take offence at his perusal of her physical assets. Crossing her arms, she stepped to the right as he and Newman approached the worktable. The object on the table was roughly two to three feet in height with a triangular shape. The base widened into a rounded platform. Crystals, the colour of fire or the sun, rested on the bottom and top of the device. Between them was a dark gray ball of some unknown material. It hung there without the aide of any wires or string that he could see.
Jack dropped his duffel bag on the floor beside the worktable.
"What do you think, Colonel?" Newman asked as he bent down to examine it.
"We just brought it back." The woman said as she lightly pressed down on the artifact's base. It dipped slightly before rising back to its original position. "An anti-gravitational device."
"Really?" Only a hint of disbelief shaded his voice as the Colonel straightened up.
The woman smiled at him and he felt that connection between them again. Her smile lit up her face. "Lieutenant Samantha Carter, Sir." She held her hand out to him.
"Carter, Jack O'Neill." He shook her hand, his gaze flickering back to the device.
"If it's alright, Sir, I'll leave you in the Lieutenant's very capable hands," Newman said, already moving off.
O'Neill ignored the disappearing man. He was more interested in the woman and device in front of him. Carter turned back to the artifact, as well, her gaze intense as she studied it.
"So tell me about this thing." He gestured to it.
"Well," she began, her voice slipping into a lecture mode that he was all to familiar with. "It utilizes super conductive gyro-scoptic action to generate an anti-gravitational field underneath..."
"Stop," Jack commanded, trying to suppress his usual urge to roll his eyes and tune her out. She sounded almost like his second in command and Jackson.
Carter looked at him, impatience clear in her posture. She wasn't use to being interrupted once she started explaining something.
"Scientist?" Already fairly sure of the answer.
"Theoretical astro-physicist. Why?" A look of challenge in her vivid blue eyes tempted him to take her up on the challenge.
"You remind me of someone in my old command."
Both eyebrows raised slightly. "Major Tobias."
"How do you know her?" he asked, curiosity in his voice.
"She beat me out of a position in the SGC." Matter of fact statement, as if this happened to her all the time.
"Oh." O'Neill didn't know how to respond to that. Was that why she was here? There was no where else to go that would even come close to working for the SGC. Maybourne's offer would have been too tempting to give up.
"So what do you do around here?" He was curious to know more about her, about how good she was at her job.
"My job is to examine some of the larger items we acquire. The ones that are too big to be transported back to Earth. See if we can backwards engineer them, and send the plans back home to Colonel Maybourne."
Jack glanced around him at the various artifacts on the shelves, wondering how successful she had been. If the intelligence in her eyes was any indication, he bet that she was very good at determining the designs and purposes of most of the devices sitting in the room.
"Excuse me, Sir. Colonel Maybourne would like to talk to you." Newman came up to them.
O'Neill muttered an acknowledgment then followed him.
"Carter." He nodded once as he left. She didn't reply but he could feel her eyes on him. Did she feel the same jolt as he did? Too bad she was working for Maybourne.
********
Maybourne's rag tag crew stepped through the stargate in the SGC and into the waiting arms of the security guards. Each was arrested and handcuffed with very tight plastic cuffs. Carter had been the first one to walk through the gate and handcuffed by Teal'c.
As they were led away, Jack felt a pang go through him. Colonel Makepeace was a good solider and it hurt him to see the man revealed as a traitor. Once he believed as Makepeace did; that acquiring new weapons and technology were more important then establishing new relations with strange beings he had never met before. Over the past few years, with a lot of help from his team, he had come to see the value of creating friendships and alliances with the people he met.
As the traitors were herded out of the gateroom, his gaze fell on Carter. She looked back at him, a spark arcing between them. This time he could see she felt it as well. If only they had met under different circumstances. If only she wasn't working for Maybourne. There was something between them that promised to explode into something very interesting.
No matter. She was a traitor and would be tried and sent to jail. There was no way anything would happen between them now.
END
Story Notes: EMAIL: jagoll@hotmail.com
ARCHIVE: Sam and Jack and Heliopolis. Others sites, please ask permission.
SERIES/SEQUEL: Eventually
SPOILERS: Third Season, Shades of Grey
AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's been almost ten months since I actually finished a story and this one almost wrote itself. And I couldn't be more happy about it. One of my favourite ways of coming up with new ideas, is asking the question, 'What if?' What if this event happened, what if Jack did this or Teal'c didn't do that. As I was watching "Shades of Grey, this story popped into my head based on 'What If'. I'm planning on expanding on it, but not right away.
Feedback and constructive criticism is always appreciated.
DATE: May 30, 2000
Copyright Jena Bartley
ARCHIVE: Sam and Jack and Heliopolis. Others sites, please ask permission.
SERIES/SEQUEL: Eventually
SPOILERS: Third Season, Shades of Grey
AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's been almost ten months since I actually finished a story and this one almost wrote itself. And I couldn't be more happy about it. One of my favourite ways of coming up with new ideas, is asking the question, 'What if?' What if this event happened, what if Jack did this or Teal'c didn't do that. As I was watching "Shades of Grey, this story popped into my head based on 'What If'. I'm planning on expanding on it, but not right away.
Feedback and constructive criticism is always appreciated.
DATE: May 30, 2000
Copyright Jena Bartley
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]