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Part XIV

The cabin was in a surprisingly good state of repair, considering how long ago his grandfather had sat at the edge of this very pond, and the fact that Jack had never performed any maintenance on the place, as he was certain his father hadn't.

All they did was catch all the damn fish, he complained to himself.

A single mackerel broke the surface, arcing three above the water before landing with a low plop and disappearing. Tease, Jack projected.

"So do you ever go to work anymore? Or do you just sit here every day trying to catch that fish?" Sam sat down on the extra deck chair that had been left out in case she dropped by.

"Mack and I have an understanding," he grumped unconvincingly. "Besides, I'm on vacation."

"You wrapped up your last vacation just a few weeks ago."

"That wasn't actually a vacation, remember?" He popped the lid on a beer and handed it to her. "I was evaluating you for the final okay on your command."

"Right." After taking a small sip of her beer, Sam picked up the other rod that had also been left in preparation for her arrival.

Turning towards her, he studied her face for a few moments before speaking. "Do we need to have 'the Talk'?"

Looking at her former CO curiously, she told him, "I don't think that'll be necessary. My dad gave me the talk when I was fifteen. I'm pretty sure I understood most of it the first time."

"Funny!" He raised an eyebrow. "Fifteen?"

She shrugged. "He was shy."

"Fair enough," he acknowledged, "and I meant the talk about how none of this is your fault and things would probably have played out the same way regardless of what you did or didn't do."

Sam shook her head slightly. "I'm okay. I had plenty of time to think about it on the way home." His response of "Oh" made her eye him again. "You seem almost disappointed."

He grinned ruefully, "I spent hours working on my speech. Had it all prepared."

He reeled in his line and began replacing the bait that had been swiped. "Felger called. He tried to catch up with you at the SGC, something about materials for the '303 improvements, and some other stuff. He was babbling, so I just went and okayed everything for you."

"Well, his idea for miniaturising the rail gun seems to be a pretty good one so far. We tested in a practice assault run against automated drones. Looks like missiles just took the back seat as far as fighter weapons go."

"Yeah, I'll admit, the guy actually has his moments," Jack grudgingly allowed. "Not many, but he has 'em. Anyway, he said that with all that needs to be done, the stopover might have to be extended. Three weeks, a month at the outside," he told her before she could ask.

Sam was silent for a moment. Then - "I guess that's a good thing. I probably would have had to ask for more time, anyway, with putting the rest of the crew together, and trying to figure out what to do with Teal'c and Bra'tac. Jonas needs to choose people for his department too."

"Better not tell Daniel about that."

After another brief silence she added "I've got the debrief with the General Landry and Woolsey tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, I got the memo. I'll be there for that one too. I wouldn't worry about it. They'll just wanna know about the new bad guys - assuming they're actually bad guys, and it wasn't all just a huge misunderstanding. They might be a little curious about your new apprentice, too."

"Well, some good news there. He's finally begun sleeping in his own room."

"You sound like a mother with a toddler," he joked.

Sam almost choked on her beer. "Yeah, but they grow up so fast."

Jack hesitated before bringing up the next topic. "How are things with Bra'tac and Teal'c?"

"I'm not sure," she sighed. "The moment we landed, Bra'tac went to the SGC infirmary - that took some convincing, but not nearly as much as it took just to get Teal'c to talk about it."

"You plan on keeping either of them on-board when you ship out again?"

"Do you think I should?"

"Not my choice." The tone of the conversation had changed somewhat. It had gone from two friends chatting to a CO and his officer discussing a potential problem in her command. "It's your ship. You're the one who has to work with them. And trust them." His expression became sour. "Personally, I'd like to strap Teal'c to the wing of a '303 and take him for a joyride. I would've thought that after ten years, he might have outgrown the whole Jaffa pride thing."

"Well, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. If I'm keeping them on-board - and I can't separate them; I doubt Teal'c would leave Bra'tac behind in his condition - there's no way Bra'tac can lead a team. He'd be pretty much ship-bound."

"He'd probably like that better than being confined to the SGC, or stuck at home on Dakara," Jack pointed out. "There might still be some useful position he can fill on the ship, if he doesn't just want to wait around and die."

"The real problem is Teal'c," Sam continued. "I thought he trusted me enough to be honest with me. Bra'tac I can almost understand. With everything he's done, and as long as he's been around, finding out he's going to die like a sick old man would be pretty high up on his list of worst fears."

"Not a call I'd like to have to make. But it's gotta be made." Jack swallowed another mouthful of his beer, and began reeling in his line again, to find the bait gone yet again. Son of a bitch! "The good news is, you have some time to think about it."

Sam exhaled slowly, clearly not thinking that having more time to think about what to do would make the decision any easier. Any regular crewman would be gone without a second thought for something like this. But this was Teal'c. "I think it'd be easier if I had to decide right this minute," she told him. "I just want to get past this and move the hell on."

She was somewhat surprised at the touch on her hand. "It's never easy," he told her. "Whatever you decide, it's the right decision. Don't let anybody call you on it. Ever."

Next Day. SGC Briefing Room.

Richard Woolsey, as liaison the International Oversight Authority and a well-known stick in the mud, had been Sam's biggest worry. The Athena was an SGC asset, and General Hank Landry was the most senior officer responsible for her, but despite the IOA having no direct authority over Sam or her ship, she knew that if they

wanted to influence a change in Athena's orders or her command structure, they had the political power to enforce such a change.

Woolsey's actual attitude to the events that had occured upon the ship's first foray into a new galaxy had been a bit of a surprise to everyone in the room.

"And Lieutenant Bryant is expected to make a full recovery?"

"At this point we're not sure," Sam told him. "The doctors are confident about him keeping his arm, but they're concerned about functionality."

"I see." Woolsey scribbled a brief note in his pad. "Now, when do you imagine you'll be prepared to set out again?"

Sam couldn't prevent a slight double-take at this. Beside her, Jack shifted slightly in his chair. It seemed even he had harboured some doubt as to Woolsey's take on what had happened. "I don't have an exact date yet. I have some more crew members to decide on, and Professor Felger has quite a lot of materials to gather to retrofit all our gliders with the new model rail guns."

"Actually, ma'am, I've had another idea for the F-303s," Felger put in at this. "I didn't have a chance to suggest this to you yesterday, but if I may?" Sam nodded her approval, as did everybody else at the table, and Felger produced copies of a thin folder. The sketches within were somewhat rough - clearly he'd thrown this together in a hurry to make sure he could put this new idea into effect before they took off again. "I've been considering some modifications to the wing-span and design to the gliders, allowing the wings to be retracted slightly, and also to fold upwards here," he indicated one of the drawings, "to allow the F-303s to pass through a stargate, much like the puddle-jumpers on Atlantis."

Sam was amazed at this development following his other idea for the railguns. Woolsey was clearly intrigued, as was Landry, and even Jack breathed a low "Nice!"

"How long will it take you to work out the finer details?" Sam asked.

"About a week," a flushed Felger replied, delighted by the unanimous approval. "Gathering the required materials will take a little longer. Overall, a month at the most."

"This is well worth any delay," Landry allowed. "Especially considering how the first trip to the Antlia galaxy went. Take as long as you need. Anything else?" The only response was a chorus of head-shaking. "Very well. As far as these new players are concerned, I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but we don't know enough about them to class them as an enemy just yet. Find out what you can about them, but don't go looking for a fight just yet."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

Outside, Teal'c and Captain Grey stood waiting in case they had been called in to speak. Neither had been, as the reports from Bra'tac's team on the attack had been sufficient to answer any questions, and Landry had agreed with Jack and Sam about keeping the Jaffa Master's illness - and Teal'c's part in covering it up - secret from the IOA.

Jack spoke briefly to Sam and Landry about the afternoon arrangements, and Sam contacted the Athena's bridge and asked to be beamed up to her office. Jack then turned to Landry, asked him if he could borrow his office, then gestured for Teal'c to follow.

"Shut the door," he said over his shoulder as the larger man entered. Half-standing, half-sitting on the desk, he regarded his friend silently for a moment, gathered himself, and decided to launch right into it. "I think we probably should've had a chat about Jaffa pride a long time ago," he began in an almost casual tone, "and to tell you the truth, I really wish that we had."

"To what are you referring, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked stiffly.

"Don't," Jack warned. "You didn't just cover for him, and that would have been bad enough. You recommended him to lead an offworld team!"

"Master Bra'tac wished..."

"I don't give a rat's ass what Master Bra'tac wished!" Jack shouted, not noticing Ferretti outside. Ferretti, for his part, had not been briefed on exactly what had happened with Bra'tac, his situation being a medical one, and therefore subject to a certain level of confidentiality, even in the military. "He's allowed to keep his own secrets, to a point. And he could at least use the excuse of not being all that familiar with our rules. You've been working with us for over ten years!"

Pausing for a second to calm down a little, he noticed Ferretti. Crap. They'd have to tell him now. It wasn't a big problem, and Ferretti wouldn't question whatever Sam decided about Teal'c and Bra'tac, but he had hoped to keep this one in the family. Quieter now, he continued. "Your recommendation left him in charge of three young officers, none of whom have seen much combat, despite their pretty impressive service records so far. Now, what happened down there was nobody's fault, we've all agreed on that. But if something had happened to Bra'tac, and he'd gotten any of those kids killed, it would've been Carter's ass on the line.

"She's responsible for everyone and everything on that ship. Her crew start lying to her -" he raised a hand to cut off Teal'c's protest. "You did lie to her. You endangered her crew, and if anything had come as a result of that, she would've been the one to pay." He could feel himself heating up again, but continued calmly. "She hasn't made a decision yet about whether or not to keep you on-board. For the record, I won't be speaking for you. In her place, I'd leave you behind."

Teal'c dropped his eyes slightly at this. "It was not my intention to undermine Colonel Carter's command."

"But you knew that was what you were doing, and you did it anyway." Jack wasn't sure he'd ever been so disappointed in a friend before this. "T," he said, catching the Jaffa's eye again, "for pretty much your whole tenure on SG-1, you were like her honorary big brother. But she's your commanding officer now. You can't treat her like a kid sister. She may still decide to let you stay on the ship when they head out again, but if you ever screw her over like this again, I'll go out there and drag your ass back here myself." His tone left no question of this being an idle threat.

He sighed. "I trusted you. So did she."

TBC.