As the sun glinted off the smooth stone walls of the canyon I put on my sunglasses to shield my eyes from the glare. Having the sun shining was nice otherwise, though, considering we had embarked on a day-long hike. It had turned out to be a great day for a walk, which was surprising as we were hiking on Corran. While some places have a rainy season, turns out Corran has a not-so-rainy season during which the sun does actually make it through the dense cloud cover.
We were headed into the mountains to check out a secondary power source for the cloaking generator that had been acting up. Well, Sam and Karaya were going to check it out. Accompanying us was a Corran guy named Derwan, who was basically the maintenance man for the power generator. I was along for backup. I wished I could have said we didn't need the added security, but we did.
Problems on Corran had started the day of Sam's Thanksgiving dinner. A lab set up by some of our personnel from Earth to help the Corrans with their cloaking generator problems had been trashed. The vandalism was such that it sent a clear message: we don't want you here. It was done when no one was around, so no danger had been posed to anyone in a physical sense. But it wasn't just kids out making trouble; the lab had been locked and not too many people had been given access to the entry keys. Someone with some authority on Corran had gotten in, or had given someone else entry.
So I was along for the day's jaunt into the mountains. It wasn't just me being protective of Sam; there were new standing orders that any SGC personnel going to Corran be accompanied by an armed escort. 'Course I didn't really mind being Sam's escort. It *was* a great day for a hike and the rest of the company was good too. I was fond of Karri and Derwan was a likeable enough guy. I'd met him a couple times before and we'd gotten along well. He wasn't a scientist. He was more a mechanic, I guess I'd say. He was a friendly sort too, with a smart sense of humour I enjoyed. I thought if he ever got Earthside, I'd take him for a beer. I wondered if he liked fishing?
"Jack, stop." Sam's voice came from behind me, where the others lagged in back of my purposeful strides.
I halted, my body suddenly tensed. Sam didn't call me by my given name around others, and definitely while not on duty. Sure, she used it frequently when we were alone and off-base, but even when we found ourselves having a moment of privacy together while on a mission she still referred to me by my rank or "sir". Something was wrong.
My finger eased around the trigger of my weapon as I slowly turned around.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh shit. Oh no.
I am a way bad judge of character, I thought as I faced Derwan standing to the rear of Sam holding a wicked looking knife against her throat.
He won't hurt you; I won't let him, I promised Sam silently, but I didn't look at her. Instead I held her captor's gaze.
"Derwan," I began casually, "what're you doing?"
"There are things we must discuss. This way I know you'll listen to me."
"Hey, you want to talk? That's fine. Let Major Carter go and we'll have a nice little chat." And my fist'll be opening the dialogue.
Derwan laughed harshly, bitterness corrupting his usually genial expression. "I have no wish to talk with your weapon in my face," he said. "No, I think I'm better off speaking to a 'captive' audience, if you will. Drop your weapon, O'Neill."
"No."
"Drop your weapon," Derwan ordered, "or I'll have no choice but to use my own." He pressed his knife against Sam's neck, forcing her to draw her chin up and put her head back to escape the pressure.
"Derwan! What are you doing?" Karaya cried. I could just barely see her in my peripheral vision, but she sounded like she'd just snapped out of a shocked stupor.
"What your father and the other elders don't have the foresight to do," Derwan replied. "I'm standing up for our people!"
"*These* people are our friends!" Karaya exclaimed. "They don't deserve this treatment!"
"We don't need friends like them. Corran can take care of itself!"
While Derwan was busy with this exchange I risked a quick glance at Sam. She appeared tense and wary but not unduly frightened. Good. I was relieved. But then, she had never let me down.
Derwan still held her tightly. His and Sam's hair colour and stature were so similar they could have been family. But the way he held her pulled up against him with her head lolling back against his shoulder reminded me perversely of a lover's embrace. That unbidden image *really* pissed me off.
"Cut the crap!" I barked out, interrupting Derwan and Karaya's discourse. "Let Carter go now before I start to get unreasonable."
Derwan shook his head. "I don't want to hurt her, but I will if that's what it takes. I know you don't want that to happen, Colonel O'Neill, so give up your weapon."
We stared each other down. My eyes were shielded by my sunglasses but Derwan's unwavering gaze still held mine with steely determination. I didn't really believe he'd go so far as to harm Sam, at least not intentionally. But I detected a slight tremor in his hand holding the knife to her throat and knew that his nerves could cause a dangerous accident. Playing along with him put us all at less risk. I put my arm out to my side and lowered my weapon to the ground.
"Good choice, Colonel." Derwan sounded more relieved than triumphant. "Now your sidearm too, if you please."
I unholstered my handgun and tossed it aside. "There," I said, holding my arms up in surrender. "Now let Carter go."
Derwan nodded. "I will. But first..." He managed to change the hand with which he held the knife without moving it from Sam's throat. Then he disarmed her with remarkable swiftness, for a mechanic.
Without warning Derwan pulled the knife away and gave Sam a brutal shove, wrapping a foot around her ankle as he did so, causing her to fall sprawling to the ground.
"HEY!" I protested. I took off my sunglasses to glare at Derwan who now covered us with his newly acquired rifle, and then I crouched down and put a hand to Sam's shoulder. I grudgingly admitted that from his perspective Derwan had been smart to send Sam flying, otherwise she probably would have whirled around on him and wrested her weapon back from him. Doesn't mean I didn't still think he was a bastard for doing it.
My eyes met Sam's as she sat up. "I'm okay," she reassured me softly. I nodded once at her then stood up. She scrambled to her feet beside me.
"I'm not okay," I growled to Derwan. "You'd better start talking." An automatic weapon pointed at me wasn't enough to hold back my anger.
"We're going to go for a little walk first; go somewhere a bit less exposed where I can keep an eye on you. On *all* of you." Derwan's voice took on a commanding tone. "Karaya, please join Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."
The young woman came to stand with us, her eyes still wide with surprise and something else. Hurt, maybe. Or betrayal.
"Let's go." Derwan gestured us forward with his weapon.
Sam and I fell into step beside each other, putting Karaya in front of us to shield her from Derwan. I still didn't really think the guy was going to make good on his threats but I thought it prudent to keep the civilian out of the line of fire, just in case.
The sun flirted with a bank of dark clouds rolling low across the sky. We trod further through the canyon hugging the mountainside. The brightness of the day came and went. One moment the sunlight would be blinding, the next it seemed the planet would live up to its customary rainy nature.
"You know Darwin," I started loudly, not turning around but letting the volume of my voice carry the words back to our captor, "back on Earth we call what you're doing here kidnapping. We don't look on it too fondly and I doubt your elders will either."
"When I succeed in my endeavour it will matter not what those from Earth think of me." The guy said 'Earth' like it was a curse. And to think I'd wanted to buy him a beer.
"I hope my own people will thank me for saving them," Derwan continued. "Even if they do not, I will be content with the knowledge that I have done what I do for the greater good of Corran."
"Oh great, a zealot *and* a martyr," I groused. "Why can't we meet some nice, friendly aliens out here who just want to exchange some information, maybe share some technology, play a pick-up game of hockey, and everyone goes home happy?" I glanced at Sam who gave me a wan smile but didn't answer. Not that I expected her to.
"Maybe because other worlds don't wish for your interference?" said Derwan. I hadn't expected *him* to answer me either, but before I could tell him what he could do with his opinion he called us to a halt.
He gestured us toward an opening in the rock face, literally a hole in the wall of the mountain. We pressed through into a narrow tunnel. There was room to walk in single file only, though the passageway had been cut fairly high. The ceiling was elevated enough that I couldn't see where it ended in the dim light of the tunnel. It was damp inside and I felt drops of water hit me periodically.
I had gotten Karaya and Sam to go ahead of me, so that I was immediately in front of Derwan. I was toying with the idea of taking advantage of the low light and trying to get the rifle back from him when the tunnel opened up into a larger and brighter room.
It wasn't as vast as the chamber with the water sluices located near the Corrans' cloaked city, the one that we'd discovered shortly before we were discovered by the Corrans, but it seemed to serve a similar purpose. There was an opening at the ceiling of the chamber with a large pool of water beneath it. From there water rushed down a series of channels to disappear somewhere underneath the broad ledge on which we stood.
Derwan told us to sit down and we complied; I complained loudly about the wet ground as I did.
Leaning back against the rock wall I laced my hands together behind my head. Sam sat beside me and Karaya was on the other side of her.
"Gosh Darwin, you know what?" I said in mock dismay. "I forgot the picnic basket. Why don't you run back and get it."
I guessed they weren't much into picnics on Corran as Derwan narrowed his eyes in confusion. I rolled my eyes at him. "Just tell us what you want with us."
"We want you and your people to leave."
"O-kay. No problem with that. We'll go right now." I started to rise.
"Sit down!" Derwan snapped, exasperation in his tone. "You will listen to me!" He waved the weapon in my face to further state his point.
"Derwan, stop!" Karaya pleaded. "Please, just tell us what it is you want!"
"I want you to give me the means to destroy the Stargate," he responded without preamble. He was looking at me.
"WHAT?" The word burst forth from Sam's lips before I could form it with my own. "You can't be serious!" Sam glanced at me with her incredulity showing in her expression.
"I am, Major Carter. I speak for a large group of Corrans. We have come to the conclusion that interference from outsiders can only spell doom for our society. We have prospered staying hidden and isolated on this planet. That is how we should remain."
"But Derwan," Karaya spoke up, "we need their help. Our technology is failing and they are helping us to remedy that."
"We can fix our problems ourselves," Derwan retorted firmly. "Given time we will come up with our own solutions. But first we must rid ourselves of these invaders and make certain neither they nor those from other worlds return. We must destroy the Stargate."
Sam shook her head. "You don't want to do that. If your people decide not to enter into an alliance with Earth then we will leave and we can remove the coordinates to your planet from our computers. But don't destroy your Stargate. You'll cut off any means you have of leaving the planet if need be."
"Do you not understand?" Derwan snapped out. "We don't want to leave the planet! We want to stay here free of any outsiders' influences. If there is no Stargate then we will be left alone."
"Don't count on it," I said. "The Goa'uld, for one, have ships. If they come here - and they could - the last thing they're going to want is to form an alliance or exchange some technology. They'll make you all slaves, or worse."
"Our cloaking shield will keep us hidden! We will be safe!" Derwan's voice was rising with what seemed to be aggravation at our obstinacy.
I snorted. "Yeah, it'll keep you hidden from the Goa'uld as well as it kept you hidden from us. And our technology isn't half of what the snake-heads have."
"Enough!" Derwan bellowed, then he took a long breath. "We do not have the means to destroy the Stargate. If we once had the knowledge to construct a device to decimate it we have lost that wisdom. But your people know how it can be done. You will tell us how to accomplish it or provide us with the materials to do so."
"Yeah. Right." I replied. Derwan's finger moved on the trigger of the rifle.
"You don't need to destroy the gate; you can bury it," Sam said hastily, undoubtedly noticing Derwan's movement on the weapon as well. "Burying it will prevent anyone from coming through."
Derwan shook his head. "What's buried can be dug up again. It *must* be destroyed. Tell me how it can be done."
"Not a chance." I enunciated the words slowly.
"You *will* tell me!" The weapon he was holding jumped as Derwan's arms shook. The guy was desperate, and that began to scare me a little bit. I'd marked him as someone I didn't have to take too seriously, as I didn't think he quite had it in him to make good on his threats. Only he wasn't backing down and his eyes were looking a little wild, which wasn't a good combination. But tell him how to destroy the Stargate? No way. We couldn't do that. Actually, I wasn't even certain we could destroy the Stargate if we wanted to. Those things were pretty damn indestructible. But I doubted Derwan would believe me even if I told him that.
"It's not gonna happen." I kept my voice calm. "Look Derwan, if your side wants to be heard, I think you should be. But this isn't the way to go about it. Why don't we-"
"NO!" he roared and took a couple steps closer. Then suddenly, he swung slightly to his left and brought his rifle down to rest against Sam's temple. His eyes, however, stayed fixed on me.
"O'Neill," Derwan said quietly, in an eerily steady voice that sent a chill of apprehension down my spine, "you are going to help me out here, because you don't wish to see Major Carter come to harm."
Oh crap, I thought, my hands balling into fists as I ached to let them loose on the bastard. My mind screamed, okay, you want to destroy your gate? You want a naquada bomb or something? I'll get it! Just get that gun away from Sam!
God, please.
"I won't tell you how to destroy your gate," I said with deceptive calm, my eyes burning into his. "But I'll promise you this. If you do anything to hurt Major Carter I *will* destroy *you*."
Derwan's eyes blazed with fury and his finger again twitched toward the trigger of the gun. I braced myself to spring at him if his finger moved any farther. But it was the other end of the weapon that came my way. Before I could react I saw the black metal of the MP5 swing toward my head. I saw stars.
Then I saw nothing at all.
******
I came to eating dirt. My arms were wrapped behind my back in an odd way and when I couldn't move them I realized it was because my wrists were bound together.
"Sam?" I groaned out even before opening my eyes. "Sam? Where are you?'
"It's okay, sir. I'm right here," came her reassuring voice. I rolled over onto my side to see her sitting beside me.
"You all right?"
"I'm fine." She nodded in response but I didn't get a smile and her eyes looked troubled. I wanted to ask her why but I had a couple questions that were more urgent.
"Derwan?"
"He's gone. He asked me if I was going to help him and when I refused he said we could sit and think about things for a while. He had Karaya tie me up and then he did the same to her and you." Sam raised her hands from her lap and for the first time I noticed they were bound together. "I've been working at the ropes around my ankles but after Derwan had Karaya tie them he double checked to make sure she'd done a good job."
"I'm so sorry!" Karaya wailed as I pulled myself up to a sitting position. "I've known Derwan all my life; I never thought he'd do something like this. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Karri, it's okay," I reassured her. "You didn't know. Don't worry, we'll get out of here now." Karaya nodded, looking like she was close to tears.
"How?" she asked.
"I've got a trick up my sleeve, or rather, a knife in my boot. Carter," I said, pushing myself around so that I could swing my legs onto her lap, "dig it out."
Sam was able to slide her fingers into my boot and pull out the knife. After I repositioned myself with my back to her she sawed through my bonds and freed my hands. I made short work of the ropes tying my ankles together and then did the same for Sam and Karaya.
We took a moment to shake the kinks out of our limbs before I suggested, "Ladies, let's get the hell out of here."
Before we could make for the tunnel to exit the cave we were forestalled by a sudden loud rumbling sound. Sam and I glanced at each other in puzzlement and then I looked over to Karaya who stared back at me with wide eyes. I was about to ask her if she could identify the source of the sound when the rocky ledge beneath our feet started to tremble and debris began to rain into the cavern through the hole in the ceiling.
"Get against the wall!" I ordered. "Move it!"
Sam ran for the rock face and I pushed Karaya ahead of me and pressed us both against the cold, wet stone. I felt pebbles bounce off my shoulders and back like hailstones as we huddled there until the rumbling subsided.
"Everyone okay?" I asked when we were able to stand back from the wall. The women both nodded at me. "What was that? An earthquake?"
"I don't think so," Sam advised. "None of the data I've seen has indicated seismic activity on the planet."
"Karri, you know what that was?"
"During the sunny season the melting of snow on the mountain peaks sometimes causes avalanches. One could have caused tremors to be felt down here."
"Okay then, let's get out of here before it happens again."
"Sir, that might be a problem," said Sam slowly.
I turned in the direction of her gaze, toward the tunnel entrance. Or what had been the tunnel entrance.
"Shit!" I jogged over to the rubble-strewn space along the wall. The tunnel was completely caved in. Futilely, I grabbed a couple rocks to toss them aside but I knew it would be no use. Trying to clear the tunnel of the fallen rocks would have been like trying to clear a beach of sand, grain by grain.
"For crying out loud!" I exclaimed, backing away from the collapsed tunnel. "What else can go wrong?"
My answer came when my next footstep sounded with a splash.
I looked up at Sam. Both she and Karaya were staring ashen faced at the river of water that had once passed under the ledge on which we stood.
"The water's rising," Sam remarked unnecessarily.
"Looks like it's flooding from below. We're going to have to climb." I indicated a further series of ledges above our heads.
We scrambled up, climbing as high as we could, but we still fell short of the opening in the cavern's ceiling. I was able to boost Karaya up to the last narrow shelf that jutted out before the rock face became unyielding. Sam and I shared a marginally broader stone seat. Our legs dangled off the edge.
For a few minutes we sat in silence, listening to the rush of the water still pouring down the flues and the churning of the waves rising up to meet it.
"Guess it wasn't a good day for a hike after all," I offered after I'd caught my breath from our rather arduous clamber up the wall.
"No sir," Sam replied, staring down at her feet.
"At least it can't get much worse, right?"
"No," Sam said quietly, her head still bowed.
"Hey," I began, my voice equally soft. I reached out to touch Sam's cheek, gently turning her face up so that her eyes met mine before dropping my hand away. "We're going to get out of here."
"Yes sir."
I frowned. I knew things were looking pretty dire but it wasn't like Sam to mope. "What's wrong?" I asked her.
"This is my fault," she stated bluntly.
"Uh, no," I said, my eyes widening in surprise that she'd even think that. "This is Derwan's fault. He's the one who held a gun to your head, not the other way around."
Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment. "Exactly." She sighed. "He used me to get to you. Somehow he knows how you feel about me, and he used that against you."
"Sam, I wasn't going to tell the guy how to destroy the Stargate, even if I knew it could be done. It wouldn't have mattered whose head he held a gun to. Though," I continued in a softer tone, "if he had done anything to *you* it would have killed me."
A sad smile flitted across her face and then it was gone. "Your feelings for me are still a liability then."
I grabbed her face again, this time with both hands and stroked her cheeks softly with my thumbs. "No Sam, my feelings for you are what give me perspective in situations such as that. Knowing you would want me to do what is right, rather than do what my heart wants, keeps me doing my duty."
Sam let out a long breath. "I still can't help but feel I'm a bit to blame," she advised, but with less recrimination in her voice.
My thumb moved from her cheek to trace her lower lip. "The only thing you have to blame yourself for is how happy having you in my life makes me."
That earned me a full-blown smile. Sam ducked her head, though in modesty this time rather than morosely, and my undisciplined hands fell away from her.
"We have to figure out how to get out of here," she declared in an upbeat tone. That made me grin until she glanced around the cavern, down at the roiling water and back up at me with hopelessness in her expression.
I shrugged. "Guess we'll be going for a little swim until the water carries us to the opening at the top."
We both knew that the frigid, fast-moving water would likely pull us under before that happened and we turned our eyes to stare down at the still rapidly rising water.
"So, no regrets?" I asked abruptly, somehow recalling the comment she'd made those years ago when we had thought we'd die in Antarctica.
"Actually I do have one or two," she responded, surprising me. Her clear blue gaze met mine. "I regret that we never made love. I regret that I never got to show you exactly how much I care about you."
"Sam," I whispered. Her name caught in my throat. "You've never needed to show me. I know."
"Still," she replied. "It would have been nice."
"Yeah. It definitely would have been." I smiled wistfully.
A wave of cold water splashed over the toe of my boot. "You should go up there with Karaya. If you squeeze together there will be enough room for the two of you. You'll stay drier a little longer and maybe the water won't rise that high. I'm going to be treading water here soon."
Sam shook her head. "I'm staying here with you." She reached over and took my hand and we wove our fingers together.
"There's so many things I want to tell you," I began.
"Jack, you don't need to tell me." She gave me a gentle smile. "I know."
We stared into each other's sad gazes. I was just about to start to tell her a few things anyway when I heard my name being called. I looked up to where Karaya sat above us, only to see her face turned upwards as well.
"O'Neill!" the voice came clearer now. It wasn't Karaya calling my name like I had thought, but someone who was outside the opening at the top of the cave. Someone who could rescue us!
Sam and I both jumped to our feet. "Hey!" I hollered. "HEY! We're down here!"
A face peered cautiously over the edge of the opening. It was Derwan.
"Oh great!" I snarled. "Come to gloat? Come to watch us die?" I cried out.
"No!" he called back. "I didn't mean for this to happen! I've come to help."
"Well then throw us a rope and get us out of here!" I hoped he hadn't used all his rope for tying us up.
"Just a minute. I'll be right back!" Derwan promised then disappeared.
"Make it snappy!" I yelled though I could no longer see him. Water licked at my ankles.
Sam and I glanced at each other, a fragile hope blossoming in our gazes.
True to his word Derwan quickly returned, lowering a rope down toward us. When it came near enough I caught it and handed it to Sam. "Go."
She shook her head. "Karaya should go first."
"You can climb the rope and then help Derwan pull Karaya up. Now go."
Sam nodded at my rationale and began shimmying up the rope. I watched her slow ascent as the rope swung freely over the water-filled cavern. If she fell... No, I wasn't even going to consider that option. She'd make it.
I was calf-deep in water by the time Sam disappeared over the rim of the opening and the rope swung down again. I caught it and held it over to where Karri sat above me so that she could grab it.
"Tie it around your chest, under your arms," I told her. "And hang on."
Karaya was propelled upward at a sluggish pace. By the time she was only halfway to the opening the water had risen overtop of my knees. I clutched at the rock face, trying to gain a handhold and struggled to stay upright as the current tried to wash me away. So focused was I in trying to maintain my stance that I almost didn't notice when the rope dropped into the water beside me with a splash. I grabbed onto it gratefully, beginning to climb hand over hand as those above pulled.
Inch by inch I moved upwards. The rope was sodden and my knuckles went white as I gripped it, literally for dear life. But finally, I reached the rim of the opening.
I was only part of the way out when I felt the pull on the rope slacken, but my hands were already braced on firm ground so I was able to hoist myself out the rest of the way. I rolled away from the opening, gasping for air that would bring my hammering heart back to its usual steady pace.
Turning my head I saw Sam on her knees tossing the rope aside. Karaya sat on the ground beside her, but she was turned the other way, watching a figure retreat into the distance. Once I'd cleared the opening Derwan must have dropped his hold on the rope, which would account for its slacking, and made his get-away. I turned my attention back to Sam, not bothering to watch him go.
She crawled toward me and when she was near enough I reached out with my arms to grab her and pull her against me. She collapsed against my chest. I kept her close with one arm firmly encircling her and I used my other hand to tenderly brush damp strands of her hair off of her face. We lay together waiting for our breathing to slow to normal.
Once again we'd made it out of a tough situation in which the odds had been against us. We'd been given a reprieve and I for one wanted to use it to make sure if anything was to happen to us in the future it could happen without Sam having *any* regrets. But, as always, there was duty to attend to first.
Reluctantly I sat up, pulling Sam with me. We disentangled ourselves from each other's arms and stood.
"We'd better head back to the city," I said. "We'll have to report this to the elders and then go home and brief General Hammond. Karri, do you know of a path off this mountain?"
Karaya nodded. "This way." She headed out and Sam and I followed behind her.
"So do you think Derwan and his group will give up now? Or do you think they'll persist in trying to have the Stargate destroyed?" Sam questioned.
"It would be nice if they did give up," I replied. I reached over to drape my arm around her shoulder as we walked, wanting to keep her close to me for just a little while more. "But why do I get the nasty feeling that this is just the calm before the storm?"
Sam didn't answer before the clouds covering the sky opened up and the rain poured down upon us.
******
END
Story Notes: One Little Kiss - Author's Note: Many, many, *many* thanks to Kath Tate for swift beta-reading, helpful comments and brainstorming the darned thing with me in the first place. :)
End Notes: Coming soon: One Little Kiss - Resolutions
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 ]