samandjack.net

Story Notes: Authors' note: I LOVE e-mail and whether good of bad I will respond. Flames are used to power Teal'c's staff weapon. Oh and indicates thought.


Mark Carter had just stepped off his flight and waved to his sister, he hadn't seen her in almost a year and he noticed how slim she had gotten as he pulled her in for a hug.

"I'm glad you made it." She said leading the way to her car. "Dad's at my CO's house, that's where we're going, for a barbecue."

"You spend a lot of time with your CO?"

"Well yeah, we're friends, and we work all of the time together." She didn't mention that she was also sleeping with him, but of course that was some thing no one else, besides SG-1, knew. Especially Jacob/Selmak, those two would hunt down Jack and castrate him for being with 'their' daughter. The rest of the drive was silent until they arrived at Jack's.

"Hi Dad." Mark greeted, their relationship had been better since his father's friend 'Selmak' had forced him to reconcile things. Mark didn't want to ask many questions about this Selmak character, because his father seemed to know a little too much about him.

Mark had caught Selmak off guard, he had not been expecting him to be behind him when he got there, Selmak quickly put his head down as his eyes flashed and Jacob was back. "Hey son, how's your family?"

"They're fine."

"Oh Mark, this is my team..." Sam nodded to the people who had gathered closely. "That's Teal'c in the baseball cap, Colonel Jack O'Neill, and Dr. Daniel Jackson." She pointed to each one in turn. "And then there's Dr. Fraiser, Cassandra Fraiser, and Dad's friend Martouf."

"I am pleased to meet the son of Jacob Carter." Martouf gave a slight bow before Mark was ushered off to assist in the barbecuing.

"So, Mark what do you think of Marty?" Jack O'Neill asked once on the other end of the yard with the grill.

"He seems very...polite." He watched as Martouf (aka Marty) attempted to join Cassandra in a game of toss. Jacob joined them laughing as Martouf fell on his butt in the jeans Jack had lent him. "Dad, you sure you're friends with this guy."

"Yes, we work together now."

"He just doesn't seem like the type of guy you'd hang around with." Sam came over to check the meat to make sure Jack hadn't burned it...but mostly because she didn't want to leave her father, Selmak, ~and~ Mark alone with O'Neill.

"Marty's really a great guy once you get past the...get to know him." Jacob/Selmak glared at him knowing he was about to make another 'snake-head' comment.

"So...do I ever get to meet this Selmak guy?" Jack almost choked on his beer, Sam gave a small gasp, and Jacob looked at Martouf and Cassandra. "What did I say?"

"Selmak...isn't here." Jack smiled nervously. Sam just walked in the house, closely followed by Jack who used the excuse of getting another beer for those who wanted one(everyone...except Cassie).

"Jack!" Sam turned to him once they were in the kitchen.

"What?" He asked innocently.

Mark thought to himself as he watched 'Marty' and Teal'c make an attempt to join in on the recounting of Egyptian gods and goddesses with Dr. Jackson and Cassandra. He looked around finding his father deeply engrossed in conversation with Janet Fraiser. He wondered away and inside the house, hearing what sounded some what like a fight he stopped to listen.

"Jonathan O'Neill, don't play innocent, I know what you were about to say out there, you are fully aware that Selmak doesn't like that whole snake-head stuff you say about Lantash and Martouf and if Selmak doesn't like it than my Dad doesn't like it either."


"I'm sorry Sammy, but the guy's just so annoying. Did you know while you were gone he tried to explain to me how a Naquadah reactor works, he should know you're the only one that can make me understand things."

"Jack, I'm sorry that Martouf, or Lantash, or whichever one it was tried to expand your knowledge. But you've gotta set your feelings aside until everyone leaves." She laughed and then there were kissey sounds.

He left the house quickly before Sam or Jack had noticed he was even in there.

Mark asked himself, he'd been back outside for 5 minutes and still there was no sign of O'Neill or Sam. Eventually Sam and Jack emerged looking slightly rushed.

"Guys sorry to cut this short, but the General just rang us, we've been recalled." Jack announced and there was a groan from all gathered. "Mark looks like it's your lucky day, you get to go and check out the VIP quarters on the base."

"Cassie, you're with us too." There was quick movement as the grill was turned off and everything was tossed in the garage. Soon everybody was piled into either Janet's or Jack's cars and headed toward the mountain.

Jack's car held-Jack(of course), Sam, Jacob/Selmak, Martouf/Lantash, and Mark.

"So, Sam do you know how long I'm going to be alone?" Mark asked only mildly concerned.

"A few hours...or a couple of days. Don't worry, sombody'll get you some food."

"And there's exciting games too." Jack smiled into his mirror. They soon arrived and everyone headed for the elevator.

"How far down do we have to go?"

"Pretty far, Daniel answered immediately reminding himself of his first trip to the mountain. When the elevator doors opened the lights went down and they were replaced by flashing blue, yellow, and red ones.

"Major Carter to the control room." Came over the speaker.

"Can you guys make sure Mark gets to the VIP room?"

"Yeah, go on Major." Sam was soon gone around a corner. Daniel, Teal'c, and Martouf/Lantash ran off to get changed. As Jack led the way Jacob tried to block his son from being run down by the soldiers running frantically past, Cassandra and Dr. Fraiser disappeared when they came to a door labeled: INFIRMARY.

"Well here we are, there'll be a guard outside your door anything you need just ask him and he'll try to get it." Jack walked in the room and then quickly departed as SG-1 was called to the control room.

"Son every thing will be fine, I may not see you before you leave, so give my best to your family."

"Where are you going Dad?"

"With Martouf and Selmak on business."

"Dad, I heard Sam talking to Colonel O'Neill, I know this might sound crazy but are you Selmak?"

"We'll talk about it another time Mark." He turned around and once he was out of the room his eyes flashed and Selmak was back in control. Jacob hadn't been expecting such an emotional surge at his son's question.

Mark Carter, after recovering from his father's strange reaction to his previously thought ridiculous question, had not been able to find anything to entertain himself...oh sure he'd attempted to play solitaire, but that was quickly halted when he realized he didn't really know how to play the game other than on his computer. So he ended up trying to sleep, which proved even more impossible than playing solitaire, there were these constant alerts of 'off world activation' and 'chevron...locked', he was starting to think that all this base did was use strange code names for everything and run wildly as if aliens were trying to take over the facility. He laughed to himself,

"Major Carter to the briefing room, Major Carter to the briefing room." Came through the tiny speaker in the ceiling a couple of times until they either gave up on her or she arrived in the briefing room(the only place Mark had herd anybody called to that actually sounded like a 'place'). Mark wondered what his sister could possibly be doing, of course he had heard all about her 'analysis of deep-space radar transmissions' but he had never believed that, especially after his so called 'retired' father got involved in it.

He lay there for another couple of hours until he heard. "Major Carter to the control room....computer malfunction! Computer malfunction!" Wow, his sister was a busy person! The lights went out, obviously controlled by that supposedly malfunctioning computer, and Mark cautiously got off of the bed and made a successful attempt at finding the flashlight he had noticed in the cabinet. Flicking it on he could hear many confused voices outside of his door, he pulled it open to be greeted by an armed guard, as promised.

"Are you all right sir?" The guard asked.

"Yes, I was wondering what happened to the power?"

"There was a computer failure, it should be fixed soon, please go back inside and wait." The guard said firmly, but politely. Mark complied and went back in the room opening the small refrigerator(hey the stuff was going to go bad anyway if they didn't get the power back on) and taking out a can of Dr.Pepper and some yogurt... he smiled to himself.

Moments later the lights came back on and Mark heard Sam's voice over the loud speaker. "That was a level 1 computer malfunction, I repeat a level 1 computer malfunction." She paused. "Could General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill, and General Carter please report to the control room." There was the sound of something exploding and then Sam yelling some very un-Sam like curses as the lights went off again. There were many shouts in the halls as siren-like noises were heard all over the base.

"This is General Hammond, all personnel report to the Gateroom, this is not a drill, the self distruct has been activated due to the computer malfunction!" Mark didn't like the sound of that. His door opened and the guard came in.

"Sir, we need to go."

"Go where?"

"Please come with me sir." Mark followed as they made their way through the twisting corridors of the base. On the way there they were joined by Janet and Cassandra Fraiser, both pretty calm considering the fact that the base was about to blow up.

The Gate Room wasn't anything too important, except for the impressive circle standing in the middle of it. There were a lot of people gathered there, mostly military, probably a few doctors and just staff. Mark recognized Martouf, wearing some sort of dress/skirt deal, and soon his father came in dressed in much the same way, nobody paying his clothing style any notice. Sam was with him, in fatigues, some thing he was not exactly used to seeing her in; she was there along with Colonel O'Neill (Jack), and Dr. Daniel Jackson, both dressed similarly to Sam. The one thing that Mark was definitely not used to seeing was his sister carrying a gun, and in the full mission mode, he knew she was a soldier, but it was still weird to see your sister with a big gun. The big man, Teal'c entered carrying some sort of long stick. Thought Mark. Teal'c was also in fatigues, his head devoid of a hat Mark could see a very prominent gold emblem on his forehead. Mark decided to go speak to his sister and father, he did notice that they were already speaking to a man that he assumed was General Hammond due to his dress.

"You're sure that the Tok'ra will welcome this many people at once?" Hammond was asking.

"The council will not be pleased, but as you say, they will get over it." He assumed it was his father who had answered, but he had his back turned to Mark so he couldn't be sure, all he knew was that was not the voice of his father. Sam still not having noticed Mark's presence went to Martouf.

"Lantash." She said. Martouf put his head down slightly, but his eyes glowed, that was clear. Sam was interrupted as the giant circle started to rotate, then there was a swoosh as some thing resembling a giant water bubble came out in a 'woosh'.

"Incoming traveler, offworld activation."

"Close the iris." The General yelled, a large 'thing' came and covered the area of the circle that looked like contained water.

"We've got a code, it's SG-4, sir."

"Open the iris." The 'iris' retracted and four people came flying through the big watery circle. "Welcome back SG-4, don't get to comfortable, we're leaving again. Major, dial us out." Sam ran back out of the room with Colonel O'Neill on her trail and appeared in the room that was above their level with a glass window. She started doing something and soon the big circle was spinning.

"Chevron one engaged... Chevron one locked." She counted all the way up to seven saying that until everyone instinctively stepped back from the ramp and the thing went 'swoosh' and 'woosh' again. His father and 'Marty' were the first ones on the ramp, they hurried up it and walked right into the watery substance, disappearing. Soon everyone in the room was fearlessly going through it until Mark was the only one left with his sister and Colonel O'Neill swiftly coming toward him.

"Go on through Mark, it's all right, just walk right into it." Sam said and he started up the ramp.

"Come here Carter." O'Neill said as they mounted the ramp. "We'll probably never get a chance to do this here again." He said and quickly pulled her close for a short but passionate kiss. Mark stepped through and was whisked strangely through 'something' until he came out gasping for breath and covered in the sand he had landed in. His sister and Colonel O'Neill followed shortly landing perfectly and on their feet.

He thought standing up with one of the gathered personnel's assistance and looking around. There were so many people milling around that Mark couldn't see beyond the crowd, so he pushed shakily through them coming to a stop behind his father before gracefully loosing the Dr. Pepper and yogurt he had consumed earlier.

"Woah, it's okay son, happens to all of us." Jacob said kicking sand over the unidentifiable matter. While Jacob was distracted with his wormhole-sick son General Hammond sent SG-1 off with Martouf to check everything with the Tok'ra that already, of course, knew they were there. The rest of the personnel were soon milling around in a more orderly fashion until SG-1 returned with several other people who were dressed like Mark's father. Mark thought to himself.

"Welcome General Hammond." The Barbie stated.

"Thank you Freya, sorry to intrude but the Tau'ri have nowhere else to go, our base self-distruct was activated due to an accident."

"We should continue this discussion underground." Everyone followed like little ants across the desert.

Once all of the SGC personnel had been 'beamed' down using those really cool ring thingies Mark was sent off with everyone that was not his father or his sister's team. As interesting as he found the whole crystal structure deal Mark was scared... he had no idea where he was and was seriously wondering about the alien takeover of his father's brain, what he really wanted was to go home to his wife and kids and for everything to make sense like it had that morning when he had stepped on the plane to see Sam.

'Barbie Girl', or Freya as she had been called by General Hammond, led the people along the corridors in a very tour-guidish fashion. She split them up, males and females and then she made sure there was an even mix of officers, enlisted, and civilians. The whole debacle seemed to Mark like something on an elementary school field trip, the mass confusion combined with the insane outfit Freya was wearing made the whole thing too funny to be serious. Soon he was the only unassigned person, and as he rapidly looked around for support he found he was all alone.

"You are Mark Carter, correct?"

"Yes."

"Your father wants you to share his quarters." She said briskly. "Please follow me, he will be in meetings with the High Council for quite some time."

Was all Mark could think when he walked into his father's room.... it was ornately decorated and very un-Jacob like, the only thing that made mark believe his father even lived there were the pictures on the small table beside the bed of him and his sister and their mother, along with the new pictures of his grand children Mark had given him the last time he had come for a visit.

"Please remain here until you are called for or your father returns.... do not touch anything you are unfamiliar with." And with that she left, to say that Mark was relieved was an understatement.

Mark sat around for hours, his Dad did have some pretty interesting stuff in his 'room' but for some odd reason he listened to Anise. The only safe activity he could think of was sleeping, which he did, on Jacob's bed.

~~

"Mark," Shake Shake. "Hey Mark wake up." Sam nearly shook her brother off the bed. " Come on Dad wants us to join him for dinner."

"You'll never believe the dream I just had." He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "There were all these strange..." Eyes open he took in the odd decor and the bluish crystalline walls. "Holy Hannah."

"Come on man, we're starving here." O'Neill called from the entrance to the room where he stood with Teal'c and Dr. Jackson. Mark hopped up and slowly followed his sister out into the corridor.

"So... where are we?"

"A galaxy far far away." O'Neill responded from Carter's side.

"No, really."

"Yeah really, the Colonel's telling you the truth. That big round circle we walked trough is called a Stargate, and it brought us to a different planet. This is where Dad has been living for the last few years; off and on."

"Why do Dad's eyes glow?" everyone halted and turned to look at him. " What, I saw them... and his voice did some strange thing like that Martouf guy's did."

Sam looked to O'Neill for help not knowing how much she should tell him. He nodded to her- he had seen it all already, no sense lying to him.

"Mark, that wasn't Dad, that was Selmak, as strange as it sounds, he lives inside Dad."

"Huh?"

"They're called Tok'ra, everyone that lives here shares their body with one of them, the look like..."

"Worms." O'Neill supplied. "Big, ugly, blue blooded worms.... also commonly known as snakes."

"Our Dad has one of those things living inside of him?"

"How do you think his cancer got cured? He was at death's door and Selmak need a host."

"You guys don't have those things inside of you. do you?" Mark saw some kind of look flash across his sister's face.

"I did, she died."

"I carry a larval Goa'uld in my abdomen." Teal'c stated nonchalantly.

"What's a Goa'uld?" Mark stumbled over the word.

"The Tok'ra are the rebels of Goa'uld society, they believe, as do we, that the Goa'uld are evil and are determined to overthrow the system lords."

"So they're Goa'uld." Mark said earning himself some nasty looks from the Tok'ra passing them in the corridors.

"Don't go saying that around here... sheesh! They all act so mean when someone calls them that." O'Neill mock hid behind Daniel... he could see why his sister was with this man, even if it was horribly against the regulations he had learned so much about while they were growing up.

Soon they arrived in 'Tok'ra Central' where everyone was chowing down on some unusual looking foods."

"Hey guys, come on, grab a seat." Jacob called from his spot with General Hammond, Janet Fraiser, and Cassandra.

"Ugh." O'Neill whispered in Sam's car as they walked to sit down. Anise and Martouf were both sitting on the other side of Jacob.

"Be nice Jack." She warning good-naturedly.

They ate and spoke for quite a few hours, Mark full of questions for both his father and Selmak.

It was sometime later when everyone was escorting each other to their 'rooms' that Mark lagged behind and watched his sister and Colonel O'Neill- the two were brilliant, they were close but not too close, to the world around them they had the ability to be seen as nothing more than very close friends, but he knew better.

The people of the SGC sat around for several days, they tried to find something they could do to help the Tok'ra but in the end Sam and Daniel were the only ones allowed to touch anything. Mark got caught with his father and O'Neill, he didn't know what to say, his Dad obviously didn't know about his sister's relationship with the man but he sure seemed to get along with him well enough, the whole situation made Mark uncomfortable. After almost a week of sheer boredom there was finally some excitement as the Stargate above them was activated and the Tok'ra announced they had no operatives due back.

"Hey Anise, er... Freya," Mark called, even after speaking with 'them' on several occasions he still couldn't keep their names straight. "What's going on?"

"Someone has activated our Stargate, we are weary of Goa'uld threat." She ran off after several Tok'ra... Mark went in search of one of his family members.

"Come on Sammy, we haven't spent any time alone the entire time we've been here." O'Neill whined.

"Jack, we're alone now."

"You know what I mean."

"Come on Colonel, we've been on missions longer than this before."

"Yeah but for missions we at least have some warning, this is like being kidnapped by the Tok'ra."

"The Tok'ra didn't know their enhancements would cause a computer failure." She defended.

"Sure, that's what they say." Mark cleared his throat and stepped into the room, his sister and O'Neill jumped apart.

"Anise or Freya told me that the Stargate had been activated... everyone's running around like mad now."

"I guess we'd uh better go eh?"

"Yes Sir." He followed them out and then lost them in the crowd, it was still a very long day until it was discovered who had activated the 'gate and for what reason.

5 Days Later...

"I'd like to welcome everyone to my second attempt at a barbecue, please get your food and eat it as soon as possible so that we can avoid the intense hunger we all experienced last time." Jack stated getting a good laugh out of everyone.

"Thanks for inviting me back Jack." Mark stated, he had been at home for a couple of days since they had all made it back to earth. The president and his people had found a way to reset the self distruct, which they did every two hours for a week until they found a way to finally purge the Tok'ra programming from their computers... virus scan... what an invention.

"My pleasure... can't invite family over and not feed 'em, eh Dad?" He called to Jacob who smiled and waved at him. mark walked a little bit away as his sister came up to O'Neill, he gave her a quick kiss before pulling his arm around her waist as he flipped the food on the barbecue. No one seemed to see or notice them. Mark thought sarcastically.

End!

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