Chapter 25

Hammond was still on his red phone when Jack and Sam appeared at his door. He motioned for them to come in. Jack laid his hand on the small of Sam's back, feeling her muscles tense and quickly relax at his touch, and guided her into the room, closing the door behind him. They took their seats in front of Hammond's desk.

"Colonel O'Neill is here now, Mr. President," Hammond said. He listened for a moment. "Yes, Sir, Major Carter also." He listened again. "I'll tell them, Mr. President. Thank you, Sir." Hammond hung up the phone.

Hammond opened a folder on his desk and sat silently reading a paper from it as Sam and Jack suffered. After a few minutes he glanced up at them. "Colonel, is it your opinion that Jolinar is telling the truth?" He asked, turning his eyes on Jack.

"Yes, General."

Hammond shook his head in exasperation and turned to Carter. "Major Carter, will you need to be taken off active duty?" His voice wasn't angry or accusatory. It was simply an honest question.

Sam let out a deep breath and nervously rubbed her palms together. "I, I don't know yet, Sir. It seems… likely, in a couple of months anyway."

"I take full responsibility, General. I was hoping you would allow me to enter my resignation, Sir," Jack said.

Hammond's forehead wrinkled as he considered it. "Isn't it a little late for that, Jack?"

Jack leaned forward in his chair, resting his hands on his knees. "Well, General, this is a very recent development."

"We are guilty, General. We don't deny that. Our…," she stopped a moment and smiled openly at Jack, "our baby should be born in nine months."

Hammond stared at them with confusion on his face. "Did you say nine months?"

Carter nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Hammond appeared thoughtful. He closed the folder and ran his fingers over it as he tried to figure out how long he should torture his two best officers and how he could save them. "So, this is a very recent development?"

"Very, Sir. I would be lying if I said Jolinar didn't have a little to do with it," Jack said, "but there is the beauty of it, General. If you allow me to resign… we could say this happened afterwards, and hopefully, that way you could hang onto Carter, and we could avoid some messy court martial."

Carter looked over at Jack, and they locked eyes. "Personally, General, I was hoping you'd let me be the one to resign," she said. She gave Jack a sad smile. She wasn't letting him go down alone. He was going to have to learn it didn't work like that anymore. He couldn't order her to stand down on this.

Jack looked at her questioningly and stretched his arm across the space between them and clasped her hand firmly in his. She was willful but that was part of what he loved about her. "I advise against that, General. You need Carter a hell of a lot more than me," Jack argued.

"Colonel O'Neill, I am of the opinion that I still need both of you," Hammond replied.

Carter sighed. "I wish it were possible, Sir, but Jack and I can't hide this or our new relationship now. Even if they didn't court martial us, there's no way we could stay on the same team."

Hammond nodded. He clasped his hands together on his desk and leaned forward, staring hard at Jack. "Colonel O'Neill, effective immediately you are relieved of your command of SG-1."

Jack stiffened in his chair, and he felt Carter's hand tighten around his. "Yes, Sir," Jack said faintly.

"Major Carter, you have been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and will assume immediate command of SG-1. Jack…"

Carter pushed up out of her chair, her face red, and interrupted him, "That's not right, Sir. If Jack is being punished then so should I. I shouldn't be promoted just because he's willing to take the hit."

Hammond gave her an understanding look and motioned for her to sit down. "Please, allow me to finish, Majo… Colonel. I explained your and Colonel O'Neill's situation to the President, but he believes, given your track record, a little leeway is called for here. He asked to me to see what I could come up with. Both the President and I are going out on a real line for you on this."

Carter's cheeks flushed. "Yes, Sir," she said and sat back down.

Jack sat silent and stoic, focusing on Carter's hand clinging tightly to his.

"Jack?" Hammond said, breaking into Jack's thoughts.

"Yes, Sir?"

"You will return to the Solari base and tell them we accept the terms of the treaty. You will begin work immediately with the Solari on development of the off-world base," Hammond said.

It took Jack a moment to realize what Hammond was saying. When it broke through is mind he looked directly at Hammond and then to Sam. "Sir?"

"The President gave the go ahead. Now that the two of you are in separate chains of command, hopefully, we can avoid a court martial. Like you said, it's just a few days and no one will know the difference if we keep this quiet. That was almost a hell of bind you two put me in."

Carter looked at Jack and smiled. "Sorry about that, Sir."

Jack raised his hand. "Me too, General."

Hammond nodded and smiled warmly. "Well, it's not like I didn't see it coming between you two. However, Colonel, I must tell you that the Pentagon insists a command of this magnitude has no place in the hands of a colonel."

Sam frowned. "But you just said…"

"So, what I spend months setting up this base so they can hand it to some other guy?" Jack scoffed. "Think I'll just go ahead with my resignation, Sir."

"Yes, the Pentagon pressed the President to negotiate with the Solari over the point of you or I taking command. I told the President the Solari position was non-negotiable."

"So, where does that leave us?" Sam asked.

Hammond shook his head, as if he almost didn't believe what he was saying. "The President wanted you to know that Thor and Sol Baelon contacted him directly just a short time ago."

Jack slapped his hand against his knee. "I love that guy."

Hammond smiled faintly. "Thor knew our government would be hesitant to enter a treaty that wasn't negotiated through the official channels and convinced Sol Baelon it was necessary. They explained to the President that we had their full confidence, and that the treaty could not go forward except as written," Hammond said.

Sam smiled. "That's handy."

"Well, I expressed what I felt to be a serious need for this off-world base, and despite the terms of the treaty the Pentagon is certain that the Solari's technology can't be kept off-world forever."

Jack huffed. "Of course they are."

Hammond ignored the interruption. "So, the Pentagon is willing to play ball on this because believe they can gain advanced technology out of the deal eventually. At the very least the Pentagon believes it can stop funneling money to the alpha site."

Jack ran his hand through his hair as he cleared his throat. "So, does that mean I'm in command, Sir?"

The alarms began to blare and a voice announced, "Unscheduled off world activation."