Batteries
Major Sam Carter quickly assessed the situation. Her teammates were surrounded, but they were still in control. Several of the natives were eyeing Teal'c, but none of them had had the courage to actually engage him yet. Jonas was holding his own against two of the planet's inhabitants and her CO, although he had signaled her desperately for backup was in no real danger. Captain Wilson however was in way over his head. Making a quick decision, she moved to the Captain's side, quickly repelling the threat against him. She signaled him to move in next to Teal'c where he would be relatively safe. With a quick look at Jonas, who was enjoying this way too much, she maneuvered herself into a position to provide her CO with cover. This was going to be one long mission.
She had been running interference from the moment they had met the natives of P2R-721. The man that had limped out to give them an official welcome, Council Secretary Henek, eventually explained the lack of adult males on the planet. It seemed that the planet, named Dorian, had been under Ra's control. Up until seven years ago, Ra's jaffa had made periodic raids on the population of Dorian, who all lived in a large valley ringed by mountains. The men had either died in the fighting, or had been captured and taken through the Stargate to be used as slaves or hosts. And while women had been captured as well, over the years the ratio of women to men over age 18 had skewed so that the women now outnumbered the men 4-1. And Sam Carter had helped deliver four gorgeous men into the middle of a population teaming with women on the hunt for an eligible male. Yep, going to be a very long mission.
Now they were waiting in the square outside of the council chambers, as a curious crowd comprised mostly of females sauntered by, some brave enough to stop and try to strike up a conversation. The woman that had been chatting with the Colonel was now giving Sam the evil eye. O'Neill ventured a look at his 2IC. She was not finding this amusing. Given the male members of SG1's track record with alien women, he figured she was entitled to be worried. At least Daniel wasn't here. That would have been a sure recipe for disaster.
Sam was keeping a watchful eye on the gathering crowd, occasionally throwing one of the women a look that was keeping all but the boldest of them away. She sighed in relief when the door to the council building opened and Henek motioned them to enter. Moments later they were standing before the council which was made up of three elderly males, and two women who both looked to be in their 50's. One of women stepped forward to greet them.
"Now I can see what all of the fuss has been about. I am Councilwoman Linsak. Welcome to Dorian." She said with a smile.
An hour later, Sg1 had permission to take soil samples. After receiving the news that Ra would never bother then again, the council had been happy to grant the team whatever they needed. As they left the populated valley behind and headed for the foothills, Sam felt slightly better. Now she could concentrate on the mission. When she had analyzed the tablet found on Abydos, she had discovered that it contained a rare mineral that they had only run across on one planet to date. They had already been back to P2S-566, and had found no clues that would lead them to the mysterious lost city of the Ancients. However she had come up with five other planets in that area of space that had Stargates, and working on the theory that they could also contain the mineral, they had been granted missions to each. Dorian was the first of the five. Just her luck.
They made it to the foothills by sunset, after stopping twice for Sam to take samples in the fertile valley floor. As they set up camp, Sam started to relax for the first time since they had set foot on Dorian. Still, her dreams that night were unsettled. Visions of her teammates surrounded by scantily clad women bearing cake eventually woke her up, and kept her from getting back to sleep. Finally she gave up and relieved Jonas early for her watch. She should have realized that her distress had not gone unnoticed. Not too long after Jonas had returned to his sleeping bag, Jack had joined her where she was sitting, settling in behind her with his legs spread out on either side of her so she could lean back against him.
"Bad dreams?" he murmured into her hair.
"Strange ones, that's for sure," she replied with a sigh.
"I can have the 'Stay Away from the Native Girls' talk with Jonas and Wilson if you want," he offered.
"Teal'c too. He doesn't have Junior to protect him anymore," Sam reminded him.
"What about me?" he asked.
"Just don't eat or drink anything that we didn't bring with us," she warned.
"Deal," he replied with a grimace. Then after a pause he added, "Are we ok?"
Sam tilted her head to look at him in surprise. "We're great. Why wouldn't we be?"
"You were kind of quiet on the hike. I, um, thought maybe all of those women today might have brought up some bad memories," he admitted.
Her eyes widened as she caught his meaning. "No, I trust you, Jack. Besides you were looking so desperate to get away from that woman that if I hadn't been worried about Wilson and Jonas I would have found it amusing."
"Humph. It was so not amusing. She was scary," he protested. Then after another pause, "I never apologized for hurting you that time back on Edora. I felt terrible later on when I realized that you actually returned my feelings. Between that and the whole sting operation to catch Mayborne I was frankly amazed that you didn't request a transfer off of SG1."
This time Sam paused before quietly replying. "I did."
Jack was stunned. Hammond had never mentioned that. "You did?" he finally queried with a note of panic.
"Yeah, after the whole undercover thing I went to Hammond and requested a transfer. He figured it was just because of that mission, and begged me to give you another chance. Said he had ordered you not to tell us and it wasn't your fault. I didn't have the nerve to admit to him the real reason I was requesting a transfer, so I had to agree to give you another chance," she explained.
"Why *were* you requesting a transfer?" he asked, sure that he did not want to hear the answer.
"Because I had realized how I felt about you, and I had lost faith in my ability to be your 2IC. I thought you had lost faith in me too," she said with a shrug.
"I *never* lost faith in you Sam," he protested.
"You didn't believe that we would move heaven and Earth to get you back from Edora, and you didn't trust me to be able to react properly if you told me about the undercover mission. You had way too much power to hurt me," she stated simply.
"On Edora, I didn't lose my faith in you Sam. I just figured that after three months Hammond was sure to have called off the rescue attempts. There are just so many resources you can expend to save one man. And as for the other thing, I was so scared that one of you would be harmed if I let you in on the plan. I was resigned in both cases to going it alone," he confessed.
She shook her head. "Just like when you got beamed up to Thor's ship and refused to let us come up to help. Don't you know that you will never be on your own Jack O'Neill," she smiled. "You had better get that through your thick head. We will always be watching your back, and we will never leave you behind."
He correctly interpreted that to mean *she* would always be there and would never leave him behind. What had he ever done to deserve her love?
"Yeah, I kinda got that, although it's taken me a while," he said with a shrug.
Sam sighed and turned in his arms so she could look him in the eyes. She placed a hand on either side of his face and with as stern a look as she could muster she lectured him.
"Jack, I'm not about to let you go easily. Especially now that I actually have you. If you thought I fought hard to get you back before, you haven't seen anything yet. I'm planning on having your children, and spending our vacations as a family at that cabin of ours, and growing old with you. You're not going anywhere alone flyboy if I have any say in the matter,"
"Yes, Ma'am," he said with a grin.
She gave him a kiss and then stood up giving him a hand so she could pull him up too. "Let's go check the perimeter and then put the coffee on. I want to get the samples done and get off of this planet before some of the alien girls decide my teammates would make good boy toys."
"Boy toys?" he asked amused.
"Believe me babe, most of those women would kill for a good old fashioned, no commitment required, roll in the hay. If there was actually anything here that we wanted to trade for we could probably offer them vibrators and a year's supply of batteries," she teased.
Jack actually blushed, which caused her to laugh. She remembered the day he had found her vibrator and the shocked look on his face, and she laughed even harder. Soon their teammates were up and giving them curious looks wondering what she had found so funny that was causing their CO obvious discomfort. Sam had stopped laughing three hours later though. She was re-testing the latest samples in disbelief. As she had expected, there was no naquada, because if there had been, Ra would have started a mine. She had been disappointed to discover no sign of the mineral from the tablet either. But her initial test from the foothills was currently being verified. There was trinium. And it was incredibly pure. Just then Jack walked up to check on her progress.
"Find anything, Carter?" he inquired.
"We are going to need batteries sir. Lots and lots of batteries."
The end.
Story Notes: Email: jackiesfic@aol.com
Season: Season 6, after Full Circle
Sequel: Part 14 of the In Demand series Previous parts are: In Demand, Momentum, Epidemic, See Jack Run, Classified, Prelude, Discoveries, Under Surveillance, T-Ball, Homerun, Good Things, Tell Her and Bad Days
Spoilers: Brief Candle, 100 Days, Shades of Grey, Full Circle
Archive: SJD, yes. Anyone else, please just ask.
Author's Notes: I honestly tried to lighten up! But they have so many issues to deal with!
As always feed back craved!
Season: Season 6, after Full Circle
Sequel: Part 14 of the In Demand series Previous parts are: In Demand, Momentum, Epidemic, See Jack Run, Classified, Prelude, Discoveries, Under Surveillance, T-Ball, Homerun, Good Things, Tell Her and Bad Days
Spoilers: Brief Candle, 100 Days, Shades of Grey, Full Circle
Archive: SJD, yes. Anyone else, please just ask.
Author's Notes: I honestly tried to lighten up! But they have so many issues to deal with!
As always feed back craved!
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 ]