Jack and Sam exited the 302 with their hands in the air in what they hoped was the universal sign of surrender. The weapons pointed at them were wrist-mounted triangles with controls that sat snug in the palm of the hand. Jack had no doubt they were deadly. When Jack and Sam had slipped down the wing of the fighter and were standing on their feet, their captors roughly checked them for weapons and then exchanged a rapid flow of dialogue in their incomprehensible language of words and gestures. Jack caught about every third word of it but not enough to understand. He glanced sidelong at Sam without moving another muscle. She gave him the slightest lift of one shoulder in reply. She hadn't understood either.

They hadn't been shot on sight, which was good. Alive was always good. Two of the Mau Lo'ans moved in behind Jack and Sam and shoved them forward. Jack had not missed the looks the men gave Sam. Silently he cursed. Why did the galaxy seem to be populated by people with dark eyes and dark hair? Sam shown like a diamond in the sun everywhere he took her; and the baggy blue fatigues didn't seem to help at all. It had always been dangerous to go into the unknown. Going into the unknown with a beautiful woman he cared about more than he should had doubled that danger. He supposed that in reality Sam had never been at more risk than any of them. Daniel got just as many speculative looks as Sam; and there were always the captors who wanted nothing more than to humiliate. But Jack was more protective of Sam than he was of the others and if that wasn't fair, it was still a fact.

As they were marched out into the deserted hallways with weapons pointed at the backs, Jack forced his hands open and rotated his wrists to get rid of the tension. He didn't intend to break any of his own bones in the next few minutes.

Sam saw the movement in her peripheral vision and knew what it meant. It was a call to action. Jack's body was relaxed and much too still, considering that he was walking. Sam understood from her own training in hand-to-hand combat that considerable damage could be done to the body by twisting the wrong way in the wrong moment, or the incorrect planting of weight in the face of an oncoming blow. She also knew from seven years in the field with Jack that he protected himself at all times. He was almost skittish about his joints, instinctively shielding knees and wrists and elbows – especially knees.

He was always flexing and bending, never extended too far; always anticipating, as he sensed the oncoming sweep of a weapon his knees would bend ahead of the impact, attenuating the force without technically yielding. Jack never knelt of his own volition, controlling the amount of damage even as he fought.

The man walking beside her was getting ready to move with deadly force. Sam prepared to move with him. Jack could probably take out two armed men on his own but she wasn't going to let him. His shoulders were already up and back but Sam knew the strike wouldn't come until she saw him rise up on the balls of his feet. When that moment came she'd only be half a breath behind him. She almost lost that nanosecond. She was a little stunned by the speed and violence of Jack's attack.

Without a sound Jack pivoted on his left foot and drove his elbow into his captor's face with a force that shattered the bone in the man's nose. He doubled over with an angry cry of pain only to meet Jack's balled fist coming up to impact his jaw. As the man went backwards with the force of the blow Jack kicked his legs out from under him. His head hit the metal deck and he lost consciousness. Jack leaned over and started stripping off the wrist weapon.

In the meantime, Sam had also spun around. She didn't have the height or upper body strength to pull off an elbow to the face with the same effectiveness as Jack. So when she pivoted she also bent over, stepped forward and abruptly stood up, driving her head full force into her captor's jaw, snapping his head back. Stunned he staggered back and Sam used the lesson she had learned watching Jack protect his knees. She leapt off the ground and drove her feet into the man's kneecap and was pretty sure she managed to break it. His brutal holler of pain filled the corridor. Sam didn't pause. She kicked him - hard – in the chin, heard his teeth click together and then watched his body sag as he blacked out. She got his weapon off his wrist and stood up to find Jack sweeping her with an appreciative look.

"Nice," he drawled.

"What now?"

"Bridge," he answered.

"Wouldn't it make sense to get the crew out of the Brig and let them take back the ship?"

"Do you know where the Brig is?"

"No."

"Then we take back the Bridge."

"Just you and I?" Sam said.

"Yep," Jack looked back at their two would-be captors lying bloodied and unconscious on the floor. "I almost feel sorry for whoever is on the Bridge."

They strapped the weapons to their wrists and took a few practice shots at the far wall. Red bolts of energy raced down the hall and sizzled into the bulkhead, leaving charred and smoking streaks where smooth metal had once been. It was louder than Jack had intended though he look suitably impressed as he hustled Sam in the direction of a ladder leading to the next deck up.

They climbed to the next deck and crept into the corridor but it was also deserted. He gave Sam a moment to get her bearings and then surrendered the lead.

Studying the weapons on his wrist, Jack said, "I hope these were in the negotiations."

"After this, maybe it's not too late to work them in," Sam said.

(0)

They climbed their way steadily towards the Bridge and still didn't encounter another breathing soul. It seemed that luck was on their side. There had not been many mutineers, unless they were all on the Bridge and Jack doubted it. It would explain why they had attacked the Prometheus with small fighters and not with the Makani itself.

At last they came out onto the deck Sam said should contain the Bridge. It wasn't hard to find at that point. They could hear loud, excited and angry voices all talking at once coming from just beyond an open door. They crept to the door, took up positions on either side and cautiously peered inside.

There were about seven men in the room, all talking at once and as nearly as Jack could tell it didn't look like it had been a very well planned mutiny after the initial takeover of the ship. He had told Sam to use her weapon only to wound if possible. Now he held her eyes with his own and gave her instructions through a series of silent hand signals.

He wanted her to go in low, to the left and take out as many as possible. He'd take the right.

They moved and chaos erupted in the room. Sam took out two of them with blasts to the leg from her wrist weapon, hoping it would only wound. She felt more than saw the return fire and ducked, diving across the room in a barrel roll that ended with her on one knee firing point blank at the man swinging around to aim at her. He fell back with a shocked cry, went down and stayed there.

Jack in the meantime had come into the room not just firing with startling accuracy but using all the advantage of his height and training. He took down two with the weapon, another by getting in close enough to smash the weapon against the back of the mutineer's skull and the last with a roundhouse left that hit the man's face with the force of a hammer striking an anvil.

The whole thing was over in less than two minutes. The silence that followed was deafening. Jack shut the door and, after a moment of looking, secured the lock.

"You have any idea where the comm is?" he asked.

"Give me a minute," she answered. She had already sat down in a chair that had the biggest console in front of it, assuming it must be some kind of central control.

"Get me Daniel if you can."

"Okay."

A moment later Sam had the Prometheus online and was asking for Daniel.

"Jack!" There was a panicked frantic sense of relief in Daniel's voice.

"Tell Commander Kaimano to have the fleet stand down. Sam and I have the Bridge of the Makani."

"You what?"

"You heard me. Now tell him. Ask him how he wants to get on board to take over and offer him the Asgard beam if he wants."

"Okay, hang on."

While they were waiting waiting, Jack strolled almost casually over to stand in front of Sam and leaned over the console, resting on his elbows.

Sam looked up at him. "What?"

Jack grinned and let all the love and hot desire he felt show in his eyes.

"Do you have any idea how sexy you are right now?" He asked in a voice thick with lust and bordering on laughter.

She leaned up a little so that they were almost kissing.

"Sir, she said, softly, "Not in front of the prisoners."

"Oh," Jack said, going along with it, "How about later?"

"You gotta deal," she said and this time their lips did brush, tenderly and full of promise.

Daniel's voice interrupted, "Jack?"

"Go ahead, Daniel," Jack said.

"All right, this is what Kaimano wants to do….."

(0)