And in a remarkable 2x1, with you: the following chapter.

Enjoy!

M.

Chapter Twenty Eight

When they entered his office at the Pentagon that morning, they felt nothing but confidence. Sam placed Naysa under Amelia's care once more, and she moved to finish with her version of the facts. After that early morning chat she had with Jack, she was more than ready to put the whole thing behind her finally and move one with salvaging her marriage and returning to the life she used to know.

The room was promptly filled not twenty minutes after they arrived, and they were grateful with the military precision that allowed them such kind of simple things, like starting a meeting exactly when scheduled.

"Colonel Carter, you were telling us how you managed to acquire a tel'tak," a General commented once they were all sitting.

"How I stole it, you mean," she added sincerely. He nodded once, "shall I proceed from there then?" She inquired, and the nods around the table gave her the permission she needed. "The next thing I remember…"

Somewhere in the Galaxy.

She opened her eyes when the feeling of her facial skin being stretched and poked was too annoying to allow her to ignore it. Her eyes slowly opened, and she found the tiny hands of her daughter playing recognizance with her face. Naysa giggled when Sam made an effort to try and focus her eyes managing to cross them before being able to see properly.

"Momma!" Naysa laughed.

There was a noise different than her laughter and Sam tried to remember if she managed to get rid of the Jaffa's or if they had unexpected company somewhere in the ship. But then, it became louder and clearer: it was Naysa's stomach grumbling. And soon so it was hers.

"Ayirabumi," Naysa pouted.

"You are hungry, baby?" Sam questioned trying to sit.

At some point since her last memory, she had managed to curl into a ball. All her left side was numbed, and then she started to feel the tickling of her nerves starting to wake up, followed by the expected muscle cramps. She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry out of pain and she left a mixed gasp out.

She felt Naysa's eyes on her, and she knew she should try and get to the backpack and find food to distract her daughter of the painful writhing she was doing as consequence of her being in the same position for too long. She crawled grimacing in pain until the bag was within a reachable distance feeling the whole time the girl's eyes on her.

"Come Naysa," she called the girl over taking a bag of nuts out and patting the place beside her. As her daughter half wobbled half crawled to her, Sam untangled the knot that kept the little bag closed and set it on the floor where it fell open revealing what was their meals since the trip started. She took a couple of nuts and dates and munched slowly.

Naysa grabbed a few and started to eat, observing her closely. Sam felt that her arms and leg were finally stopping aching, and she wriggled her toes and fingers to see if she could start to use them managing a modicum amount of movement and making her girl laugh at what it looked like silly actions.

Nothing that she was gaining control again, Sam helped herself with the wall managing to stand up. The world around her moved, and she knew it wasn't due to the flying. A bout of nausea took over as the mix of standing for the first time in who knew how long and the pounding in her head becoming louder set in. The Colonel inhaled deeply to try to control herself, and not even overall discomfort could make her avoid her to scrunch her nose due to the smell.

After she looked around and pinpointed the reason for it, she closed her eyes in an attempt of not crying. It was ridiculous and natural at the same time; there were several wet spots in a place further away enough to be considered 'far away' for a child. It was evident that nature had called Naysa during the time she was out cold, and not finding any reason not to, her daughter answered it. It made perfect sense. It wasn't the most convenient situation given her conditions, and sure as hell, it didn't make her feel comfortable. Especially not because black spots were starting to pollute her sight again.

She could've given up at that point but refused to surrender. After taking a deep breath, Sam dragged herself towards the cargo bay one step at the time while wondering if she had ever seen something to keep a ship clean in any alien vessel she was before. However, memory served her only to remind her that what she knew best of most transports were their cells.

She smiled, at least she had spent enough time on Tel'tak's to know where their version of the bathroom was. She reached it after what felt like hours feeling exhausted and as she imagined, found nothing to help her cleaning situation. She leaned against the wall as she tested the shower, feeling quite grateful with the knowledge that the water heating system was operational and that was good in her books since the warm water should help her with disinfecting her wounds somewhat.

"Cleaning on aisle four first, Samantha." She said to herself, closing the water and she moved to the cargo bay. She reached the place where the Jaffa things were still laying forgotten after being forcibly left behind, and after collapsing on the floor, she started to rummage through them.

"Well, at least some of this things will help us be more comfortable," she whispered when she found what they used as sleeping bags. She found a pot she could use to collect water for cleaning and some bars she knew to be Jaffa snacks which tasted terrible but at least were nutritious. Naysa joined her in her quest, even if the girl didn't have any idea of what her mother was looking or what half of the things were. However, she took it like some sort of game until she started to squirm in place.

"You need to go?" Sam asked knowing that was what all the kids back at Semayati did when they wanted to go. The girl nodded eagerly starting to crawl towards the place where she had used before. But in an adrenaline rush, Sam grabbed her and moved as fast as she could towards the washroom. Naysa's eyes widened when she saw the room which was similar to the one at Fewashi's home and blushed.

"Sorry, mommy," She pouted, Fewashi had taken the time to help Naysa understand that going on a plot of land was okay for outside but not on the inside. Sam caressed her cheek with a soft smile.

"Don't worry, Naysa. You didn't know where it was," she whispered as she leaned against the further away wall, she slid slowly against it, and she passed out again.

The next time she woke up, she heard water. Naysa had been playing around the washroom, and in a lucky guess, the girl figured how to work the warm water. Her daughter was soaked wet but happily playing with it and the open bag which used to contain a ration told Sam that Naysa had eaten too.

"You are too smart for my own good," she whispered, and the girl grinned out of happiness after seeing her mother awake.

"Stay here I will go for our things," She added before trying to get up. The pounding in her head was still there, and so it was the burning sensations of her wounds. And she wondered once again how much time she was gone.

This time, she had managed to stay awake long enough to clean Naysa and the ship somewhat and then she showered herself, taking special attention on her wounds. Then she did some laundry, even if it was just to clean it only with water it had kept her occupied and therefore, awake. After, she found the strength to prepare the sleeping bags and rummage some more around while munching on a piece of the bar she had found earlier.

When she sensed that not even if she ate the whole thing she would remain awake, she called Naysa over. They accommodated in the now more comfortable floor, and she talked to her daughter as she always did until her little eyes started to drift. For once Naysa's eyes closed before hers.

What she assumed to be days passed by and she knew her wounds weren't improving. Yes, the Jaffa staff blast rarely allowed one to bleed to death but infected burns did have a great mortality rate among the aliens. And if the fever she had was something to go by, she was certain she had at least one of hers infected. Certainly, it didn't help her that she was barely eating, choosing to keep Naysa better fed than herself. There was a better chance that if someone were going to survived this, it would be Naysa.

Even when she munched a few nuts and the last a quarter of the remaining Jaffa bar earlier, Sam didn't feel stronger, on the contrary, she felt weaker by the hour. However, she tried to pretend. She played with Naysa and spoke to her until blackness overtook her.

That became their schedule of sorts; she would wake up, they would eat, she would pick a couple of nuts and then leave the rest to her baby girl. Then, they bathed and finally, she dragged them both to sleep again. When she woke up, Naysa rarely was asleep anymore.

Now, Sam's hope was placed on being in the right direction and keeping her daughter alive at least until the ship was out of hyperspace and she could contact Sakkara and make sure Naysa could be rescued. She didn't know for sure how long it would take for them to reach the Jaffa stronghold at the current speed, the calculations were all done for the puddle jumper speed, and it was somewhere along three to four weeks.

She could stop the vessel and reposition them to get the variables that would allow her to calculate the distance they still had left and arranged it on an Earth timetable. She just didn't want to stop and do it just to learn there were only a couple of days away from the market and not that much closer to Sakkara as she was trying to convince herself they were, and that was something she needed to believe in order to survive.

She repeated the routine every time and soon, she found she was spending more and more time out than awake. The bags of rations she found around her were proof that Naysa was feeding herself out of hunger. But what was worse, even when controlled, they were starting to deplete their little stash.

She grabbed the backpack and the former bags that were already consumed, and slowly she divided each of them into two smaller containers. She did a count and found them as not nearly close to enough to last them and sighed. Later that day, she tried to eat the few nuts she was consuming, and they felt heavy on her stomach, so she stopped. Seconds later, her stomach grumbled, and she dragged herself to puke.

"That's not good," she announced loudly to herself. She knew she couldn't go on without food for much longer, and she couldn't eat what they didn't have. She wasn't sure that her earlier reaction was due only to the stress of knowing how screwed up the situation was or if the nuts were causing a reaction of some sort or a response of her body to the need for more nutrients than those she was providing. In any case, there wasn't much she could do, she tried to keep herself satisfied with water, and while Naysa consumed a bag per meal, Sam made her bag last four or five and fought with her own body to keep them inside all the time.

And then, she collapsed and even when the ship slowed down out of hyperspace, it didn't manage to wake her up anymore.