November 13, 2003 – Earth Orbit
A wormhole opened in Earth's Stargate, and Teal'c stepped through before it closed behind him. He was surprised to find himself on an Asgard ship. All he had heard was that the Aschen were no longer in power on Earth, but he knew nothing about what had happened. He stepped through the door to the next room and ran into Jack's team. He looked them over and bowed his head.
"Colonel Ferretti, Lieutenant Hailey, Vala Mal Doran. I do not know your name."
"Major Wilkins," he replied tersely.
"Teal'c, if you want to go down to Earth, you are welcome to, but it may be a while before you can leave," Ferretti warned him.
"I am agreeable with this condition."
"Good. Kvasir, send our visitor down."
Teal'c was beamed away.
"Now, back to business. You would really put an Asgard cloak on Jack's tel'tak?"
"I would indeed. Even before recent events, O'Neill was legendary among the Asgard. It would be my honor. I will also upgrade the shields, weapons, and hyperdrive."
"Well, be my guest. Jack'll be a happy camper when he gets back. Plus, it will help with our special mission whenever we get the chance to go."
November 13, 2003 – Washington, DC
Sam was sitting on Daniel's couch reading a physics magazine and killing time until she got a new assignment. She still hasn't been able to bring herself to talk to Joe. She knew that she needed to get a divorce, but what if they could work it out?
I could get treated by Janet, and we could have the baby that would finally make me happy. Er. Happier. Right.
Idiot.
What if his motives weren't evil or cowardly? What if they were noble?
She scoffed at herself, if that's even possible.
What noble motive would justify sterilizing half of the world's population within five years? You just can't admit that you failed, so you are going to ruin your life instead.
Her phone started ringing, and she was thankful for the respite from berating herself.
"Carter."
"Colonel Carter."
"Hi, Teal'c. Are you in town?"
"Indeed. I was transported to the Space Terminal, but there is nothing here."
"It's a long story. I'm at Daniel's if you want to stop by. He should be back any minute now."
"Then I will be there soon."
As she hung up, Daniel walked in the door with donuts and coffee.
"Daniel, Teal'c is on his way over. He should be here in a few minutes."
"Oh, ok. We have quite a story for him."
She lowered her head in shame. "Yeah, we do."
After Teal'c arrived, they gave him the details that they knew and replayed the video of Jack's announcement for him to see for himself.
"We have failed O'Neill."
"I know, Teal'c," Daniel replied solemnly.
"I wish he did not see the need to keep this from us, but I understand why he did. He could not risk the Aschen discovering his investigation or preparations. I only hope we can one day regain our friendship."
"Me too. That will be hard, though. He takes betrayal harder than anyone. It would be just like him to freeze us out for the rest of his life."
Sam shuddered at the thought. She had been silent, brooding about the situation while the boys talked. The fact is, she knew it would be almost impossible to regain the Colonel's trust once they have lost it. That made her ashamed of herself.
"I would like to know what's going on with the Stargate," Sam stated.
"All I know is that it resides on the Asgard ship in orbit. I was met by Colonel Ferretti's team when I arrived. I did not see any other personnel or any signs of an active program."
"I'm pretty sure we are going to have to see what is going on in the government before we know anything about what's next for the Stargate," Daniel concluded.
December 5, 2003 – Earth Orbit
"Colonel Ferretti."
"What'cha need, Kvasir?"
"We are receiving word from the Tok'ra. They are advising that a majority of the forces of the System Lords, including two Tok'ra operatives, are at the target planet."
"I assume Jack's ship is ready?"
"It is indeed."
"Perfect. I'll get us ready and out of here within the hour."
He got on the intercom, "Alpha Team one, report to the bridge."
At 1130 on the dot, Hailey, Wilkins, and Vala joined Ferretti around the table that Kvasir had created for them.
"We received word from the Tok'ra, and we're a go for our special mission. There are two operatives to extract. They will contact us with their location while we are en route. With the Asgard hyperdrive, we should arrive within 4 hours. Any questions?"
"No, sir," they responded.
"Excellent. Gear up, and we'll move out at 1200."
At 1200 hours, Kvasir beamed them to the tel'tak. Vala set the coordinates, and they were on their way.
December 5, 2003 – P4C-970
They arrived at Aschen Prime to see a fleet of Hatak raining fire on the planet below. Vala lowered them down toward the planet's surface, and they saw that while most of the buildings had been destroyed, a few seemed to be guarded by some kind of forcefield. They first went to the coordinates where the Tok'ra were supposed to be waiting. Vala was only able to locate one of them, so she beamed him aboard.
"I am Kal'mar of the Tok'ra. Thank you for extracting me."
"Where is the other one?" Ferretti asked.
"Dead."
"Ok, Vala, let's get this over with."
The plan was to use the remote dialer that they recovered on Massalia to connect the Aschen gate to the black hole that SG-1 had previously encountered. They would dial it from the ship at the maximum range of the device, and then they would have to immediately jump into hyperspace from inside the planet's atmosphere. They would make one short jump, just enough to get them away from the time dilation, and then jump the rest of the way home from there. Otherwise, it could be years before they got back to Earth. As it was, it would probably take a couple of months, even if it was only hours to the passengers.
According to Hailey's calculations, even the ships in orbit would be here for what would be years to those outside the time dilation if they tried to escape. But since it wasn't likely they would notice the affect right away, they would probably be here much longer. Fortunately, most of the ships had landed, and by this time, anything on the ground would either take hundreds of years to escape, or simply be sucked in.
"Alright, Vala, get ready to make the jump. Hailey, dial it up."
Hailey dialed P3W-451. Once it connected, Vala jumped into hyperspace.
December 14, 2003 – Colorado Springs, CO
A special election has been scheduled for President's Day, February 16, 2004. It would be to determine replacements for the elected officials that were forced to resign for their roles in the Aschen treaty, which amounted to nearly half of the government.
Since Sam probably wouldn't have a new assignment before then, she was forced to take care of her personal business, or risk dying of boredom. A week ago, Sam finally relented to her inner voice and asked Joe for a divorce. He declined her request, so she was scheduled to meet with an attorney to find out her options. Daniel and Teal'c have supported her decision, and, along with her father, have been there for her. Their friendship has meant the world to her.
Today, however, was her appointment with Janet to get healed by the Colonel's device. She sat in the waiting room for a few minutes, before Janet came out to greet her.
"Hi, Sam, how've you been?"
"I'm fine, Janet."
"You ready? Follow me."
She led Sam down the hall to a room, had her lie down on the table, and used the device to heal her. Then she ordered an MRI to confirm the repair.
"That's it?" Sam asked incredulously.
"That's it. The Ancients knew their stuff apparently."
"It's just ironic that the Colonel went through years of whatever he went through, to heal me in 30 seconds."
Janet look surprised at her remark.
"Well, you know him. He'll put himself through all manner of hell to spare others the pain," Janet replied carefully.
"What do you have planned for the rest of the day?" Sam asked her.
"I'm taking off early. I've been swamped since the liberation. I was just going to go home and relax. You?"
"No plans. You mind if I stop by?"
"No, that's fine. I don't know if Cassie will be home, but either way is ok. We can order Chinese and have some wine if you want."
"Sounds good, Jan."
Janet saw the guilt finally breaking through Sam's defenses. They ate and relaxed like the old days. Cassie joined them briefly before going out. The conversation was mostly superficial, except for Sam mentioning requesting a divorce. It looked like Sam needed a friend tonight, so Janet didn't push anything.
February 2, 2004 – Colorado Springs, CO
After a hyperspace jump that felt like it lasted 30 seconds ended up taking almost two months, they punched in the coordinates for Earth and headed home. A few hours later, Vala parked the tel'tak at Jack's cabin, and the team beamed back up to Kvasir's ship.
"Kvasir, we're home. Anything new to report here?"
"There is not, Colonel Ferretti."
"I guess no news is good news. No word from Thor yet?" Hailey asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately not, Lieutenant Hailey. I will be sure to alert you as soon as I hear from him."
"Well, the mission was a success. I know there are still some Aschen remnants to deal with, but the System Lords have been dealt a sizable blow. Guys, I guess we can go home for now. Just tell Kvasir where you want to be dropped off."
Hailey and Vala were living at Jack's in Colorado Springs, so they went there, after first beaming to the safe house to pick up most of their things, while Ferretti and Wilkins went to their homes.
The ladies spent a couple days enjoying their leave, with Hailey showing Vala around some more of Earth. They gave a Janet a call and decided to spend an evening over there with her and Cassie.
"Hi, Janet, how are you?" Jen greeted Janet.
"Hey Jen, Vala, it's good to see you! It's been a while. I thought all of the world saving was done now."
"Not all of it. There was one more thing Jack had set up for us to do. Let's just say we shouldn't have to worry about the Aschen coming from their home world for retribution."
"He thought of everything, didn't he?" Janet said, shaking her head.
"He's something else," Vala added wistfully.
"Jen, Vala, hi!" Cassie went to greet them.
They went to the living room and caught up for a few minutes when a hologram of Kvasir appeared in the middle of the room.
"Lieutenant Hailey, Vala Mal Doran, I have a message from Commander Thor."
"What is it?"
"O'Neill's weapon appears to be very effective at defeating the Replicators. The fight may not last much longer."
"What about his condition?" Janet asked worriedly.
"Unchanged. Thor has our geneticists and experts on human physiology studying a solution, but nothing has come of it as of yet. Right now, he is in stasis."
"Ok, thank you, Kvasir," Vala concluded the conversation, and the hologram disappeared.
"When I asked him a few days ago for an update on Jack, I kind of meant about his condition, not the status of the war with the Replicators. Although, it would be good for the Asgard to owe him a favor, I suppose," Hailey noted.
The room got quiet for a few minutes before they started talking again. Janet and Cassie had gotten as close to these women as they had SG-1 over the years, and they enjoyed spending some time with them.