It was several hours before Sam awoke once more, quite refreshed after some rather pleasant dreams involving Jack. She smiled, and then froze, mentally preparing herself for the teasing, or at least the comments.
'I had not intended to say anything,' came Anise's voice.
'Well, go on, get it out anyway,' said Sam.
'I will only say,' Anise supplied, 'that while Freya's imagination is quite creative, yours is much more... vivid.'
Sam blushed, but retorted, 'Well, they're only dreams.'
'As you say,' said Anise.
'And what is that supposed to mean?' Sam asked.
'Only that it seems to me that Jack cares as deeply for you as you do for him,' Anise observed. 'However, you choose to ignore this, and tell yourself that yours are merely one-sided emotions. Despite the rules and regulations you quote, I do not doubt he would find a way to make a deeper relationship possible, if you only allowed him.'
Sam didn't really have an answer to that, at least, nothing Anise hadn't essentially just called bologna. At last, she said, 'He hasn't done anything -'
But Anise cut her off, 'You know quite well that he would wait for you to make any "first moves". You told him you were fine with your revelations remaining in the observation room after the Zatarc incident.'
'Good point,' Sam admitted. That seemed to be the end of the discussion for now. Anise apparently just wanted to let her remarks sink in for the time being. Sam briefly wondered if her father had had as interesting a time adjusting to Selmak.
'Knowing Selmak,' came the response, 'I imagine Jacob's experience was much more confrontational,' Anise answered with another mental smile.
Sam got up and walked into their main room, shaking her head and slightly pitying her father. The lights had been dimmed, and were off completely in Jack's bedroom. She could make out his form, asleep on the bed and facing away from her. She turned back to the main room, and thought about just sitting there and waiting for him to wake, but she was getting rather bored. She would have gone exploring, but she did want to be there when Jack got up.
'Would some of my journals interest you, Samantha?' Anise offered.
'Yes, actually, that'd be great,' she answered.
Wordlessly, Sam surrendered control of her body, and Anise walked out into the corridor. She didn't have to go far before she found a Tok'ra who was willing to go and get the books for her from Freya. They came back to the room, and Sam took a seat, now consoled that she wouldn't be sitting there long without anything with which to occupy her mind. 'Present company excluded,' she added, realizing the irony of her last thought.
'I understand the need to be "doing" something,' Anise responded. 'Freya is much the same way.'
Before much time had passed, Sam heard Jack begin to stir. At first, she thought he was waking up, but then she realized he must be dreaming. It seemed to be a nightmare, from the way he was tossing and turning. Cautiously, she made her way to his bedside, and reached out a hand to his shoulder. "Jack," she said softly. He still seemed deep in his dream, so she shook his shoulder a bit more forcefully. "Jack," she called.
He tensed as his eyes shot open. "Shallan," was all he said, before he took in his surroundings and met Sam's eyes. "Sorry," he said. "Dreaming, I guess."
"More like a nightmare. You said 'Shallan,' just as you woke up," Sam observed. "What's that mean?"
"It's -" he began, but just then a voice came from the entrance way.
"Anise? Major Carter?" Freya called.
"I'll be right back," said Sam, letting go of Jack's arm, and going out to meet Freya.
"Thank you, Freya," Sam allowed Anise to say. "These are most appreciated," she said, taking a stack of about ten journals from Freya. "I trust you have plenty of research with which to occupy yourself in their absence?"
"You know that well," she answered. "Major Carter, I believe you will find these subjects of particular interest, compared to the obscure nature of much of our other work. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"I believe we will be fine for now, thank you, again," said Anise, walking her to the door.
"I wish both you and the Colonel a speedy recovery, Major," said Freya just before she left. "Good night, Anise." With that, she departed.
Sam came back to Jack's room, and found him sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. "What is it?" she asked, setting the journals down on a chair by the doorway.
Jack looked up as she came in. "Just a friendly debate," he said.
"Anything you want to talk about?" Sam asked.
Jack was silent for a moment, apparently discussing something with Kanan. "Could I please speak with Anise for a moment," came Kanan's reply.
"What is it, Kanan?" Sam heard Anise ask.
"A matter which requires the utmost secrecy," Kanan answered. "If it were possible, I would not have discussed it with Jack. Can I trust to your discretion?" he asked.
"You should know that implicitly; of course you can," she answered.
With that, the symbiotes relinquished control to their hosts. "It was a few months back," Jack now continued. "Kanan was on a mission to infiltrate Ball's secret fortress thing." After a moment, he corrected himself. "Ba'al's fortress," he said.
Anise recalled the details of the mission debriefing: secret weapons technology, gravity field generators. "He came back with the entire place mapped out, including all its defenses," said Sam.
"Right," said Jack. "But what weren't in the report were the details of just how and why Ba'al's lotar helped him to all of that intel."
Sam was silent, waiting for him to continue. Even Anise had no speculation to contribute.
"Her name was Shallan," Jack said quietly, staring blankly at the floor. Sam suspected from his tone that she knew where this was going. "At first, she was just a means to an end. But eventually, he ended up telling her the truth about his mission. She hated Ba'al. She only served as lotar because it was the only life she'd known. After Kanan told her about the Tok'ra, she did everything she could to get him the most detailed information she could on Ba'al's doings. She asked if he could take her with him, but he told her his mission wouldn't allow it. He -" Jack cut himself off. He seemed to be choked up. He took a few breaths, then looked Sam in the eye. "He loved her," he said. "And he left her there," he concluded, looking back at the floor.
'How could he?' thought Sam, imagining the horror of living as a Goa'uld's slave, especially when you realized how evil they were.
'The Tok'ra have survived this war by accepting the necessity of sacrifice,' supplied Anise.
'Well, we don't leave people behind,' came the mantra in response. 'Especially if he loved her -' Sam realized she was thinking again of the force field on Apophis' ship, when Jack wouldn't leave her even to save himself.
'I see,' said Anise simply.
Sam reached out and touched Jack's arm. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked, not able to imagine what could possibly help.
Jack looked back up. "He wants to save her," he said.
"The Tok'ra won't go along with it," Sam observed.
"We know," said Jack, looking at her and willing her to understand.
"But the Tok'ra don't need to know," Sam concluded with a small smile.
"Exactly," said Jack.
After a moment, Sam asked, "Are you up to it? Physically I mean?"
"I'm fine. I'll need to hang on to Kanan for maybe another day before I can do without him, but with him I'm as good as new. How 'bout you?"
"Same here," she answered. Sam consulted with Anise. 'He has all the necessary intel for a quick extraction to work,' she said. 'With just two of us, we should be able to get in and out, undetected.'
'That fortress is extremely heavily guarded. If anything were to go wrong -' Anise countered.
'You don't know my Jack,' Sam answered, remembering with pride all of the desperate situations they'd gotten out of before.
Eventually, Anise consented, 'If the plan is sufficiently executable, I will partake.'
"We'll do it," said Sam at last. After a mental nudge from her symbiote, she added, "But Anise wants to know the plan."
"I knew we could count on you," said Jack with a smile. "I'll sketch out the details if you've got any spare paper in those journals there," he said, indicating the stack that Sam had set down. Anise directed Sam to take the fourth from the top, and Sam handed it to Jack with a pen. Jack hopped down off of the bed, and laid the journal out on it. Flipping it open to the back, Jack set to work on the layout of Ba'al's fortress. "Because he's set up shop on a planet without a charted 'gate, he doesn't keep it guarded. There are strong defenses, but they're not manned 24/7. It's sort of like his little hideout, and he only keeps a minimal staff. Now, the main entrance is watched, but I was able to slip out quietly enough through this back service entrance," he continued, circling a door in the southern face of the outer wall.
He continued to amaze Sam with things like "I was able to" while referring to Kanan.
"It's small and well hidden, so it's assumed it wouldn't be used as an enemy point of entry. This portion of the compound is all weapons labs. Prison cells are here, kitchens along this corridor, and here are the private chambers and such," he said, indicating an area close to the main entrance. "Shallan's got a room right next to Ba'al's, here. Once we're in, we should be able to hide out in this corridor until we get our opportunity. Then, it's just a race to the 'gate."
"We should probably wait until evening," said Sam. "With as few Tok'ra as there are on this base, there are even fewer wandering the hallways at night."
"Sounds good. Ba'al's planet's pretty much in synch with this one, so it should be close to dark there, too. And, fortunately, they don't guard the armory here," said Jack. "Zats should be no problem. We'll have to take care of the couple of folks standing guard at the 'gate on our end, but that shouldn't be difficult."
Sam looked over the diagram again. 'It is difficult for me to believe that I have agreed to this,' said Anise.
'Second thoughts?' asked Sam, worried that she might back out and spill the beans.
'I have committed to the secrecy of this operation, at the least,' Anise assured her. 'And although it is contrary to my usual behavior, I will accompany Kanan on this mission.'
'Thank you,' said Sam sincerely.
"We're all on board," said Sam, realizing Jack was watching her.
"Excellent," he said. "Thanks, um, both of you."
Sam smiled. "Maybe we should see about that call home," she suggested.
"Let's do that," said Jack, closing the journal, and sticking it under his rather sparse pillow just in case. He followed Sam out of their room and toward the rings. In an undertone he added, "And we can make sure they haven't changed their defense strategy at the 'gate."
Sam picked up a Tok'ra communicator before they left. They didn't even have a GDO, let alone a radio. Sam figured the Tok'ra planned on taking them home using their own IDC. They took the rings to the surface, then made their way to the stargate. Two Tok'ra were in permanent, concealed positions flanking the 'gate. They greeted Sam and Jack as they approached, and allowed them to dial earth. Sam was mentally working out the best angle of approach to the 'gate for later that evening. The guards wouldn't be able to see the rings from where they were hidden.
They transmitted their message back to the SGC: that they were both fine, still recovering, but that they should be able to do without the symbiotes in a day or so. The only concern in that respect was that they were still looking for a host for Kanan, but they were hopeful one would be found soon. Jonas, Teal'c, and Hammond wished them well, and said they would be looking forward to their next transmission. The call and 'gate recon successful, Sam and Jack turned back and headed for the rings again.
They spent the rest of the day roaming around the base, saying hello to familiar faces, and letting everyone know that they still had a good deal of recuperation ahead of them. Thoran, who was heading up the search for Kanan's new host, didn't have any encouraging news beyond the fact that he was still hopeful. Kanan assured his friend that he had every confidence in him. "And Colonel O'Neill has been a most patient host in the meantime," he said. "Of course, much of that, I believe, is due to Major Carter's influence and her previous experience."
Sam was wondering if she'd really helped Jack that much, when he turned to her after Thoran left. "Really, Sam, you've been a life-saver," he told her quietly, as they entered the commissary for dinner. "I was all set to fight this every step of the way, at least on the surface," he said. "But seeing how calmly you dealt with it, even after what Jolinar had done, it let me give Kanan a chance."
She didn't really know what to say to that, so she just smiled as she took a plate of food from the stand. "You're welcome," she said at last, sitting down with him at their corner table.
To be continued...