Chapter 14 – Dust in the Wind

Jack stuck around a couple days to make sure she was ok and to have one of the kids get a pregnancy test just to make sure. They made sure a friend of a friend bought it so it wouldn't be traced back to them. Chris had told them they were lucky to be in a core world that while sparsely populated, at least had access to modern medicine.

A week after they were certain she was pregnant Jack slipped out of the house in the dead of the night with supplies that wouldn't slow him down, some credits, and that positive pregnancy test to remind himself exactly what he was doing all this for in the first place. Not that he didn't know. Carter had given him a second chance at love and a second chance at being a father.

His first step obviously was to get off planet before the Alliance noticed or at least cared that he was gone. He and Sam had agreed it would be best if she just continued to cooperate with Alliance as though she either agreed with their politics or at least didn't care.

The night before he left they made love like they wouldn't see each other for months which he was fairly certain would be the case anyway.

He slipped out unnoticed having used Sam's codes to glitch the security footage outside their house into an endless loop for ten minutes then come back on as though nothing happened. By then he was long gone.

He changed into something less burglerish to find a ship that would take him back to Gonghe where they had met Gus. Hopefully someone on that planet or another White Sun system resident would know where he was or where he'd headed next. He only had twelve other planets to pick from. He didn't fault Gus for not trying to retrieve them. Alliance troops had killed everyone but he and Sam and only because they had bargained her brains for their lives.

It took Jack several hours wandering around the space port to procure a ship that was headed for Gonghe from Ra Amiran. Unsurprisingly, Gonghe wasn't considered a destination planet in the core. Perfect spot for a gate though. Records said it was discovered in 2027 but nothing about when it was terraformed which lead Jack to voice his suspicions that it was that way when it was discovered. In his research Jack had started to develop some suspicions about what happened to the gate but he'd kept them to himself as he didn't want Sam to worry. Hopefully his answers were in the record with a Lambda on it. If they weren't, he was going to have to raise his son or daughter on a strange planet among people he didn't entirely trust.

He hadn't been kidding when he said the pregnancy was probably his fault. Sam had been extremely careful about her cycle so the most likely conception date had been the night after the Unification Day party. Sam had given him her love freely that night after his terrible nightmare and Jack had absently learned her cycle as well. They had simply cut it far too close and now he was going to be a father again.

Jack felt equal parts thrilled and terrified. There would be no simply hiding their relationship when they got home now. Everyone would demand to know what happened, how Sam got pregnant, who the father was, etc. He'd retire. That was the only logical solution. Sam could continue her work with the SGC and he'd be a stay at home dad.

Jack didn't realize he'd approached the next ship with a huge grin on his face because he'd been thinking about being a stay at home dad.

"You looking for a ride mister?" A teenage boy asked him.

"Can you get me to Gonghe?" Jack asked, still grinning.

"Can if you got the credits."

"I can pay. Cash." He added.

"I'll go tell pop to fire up the engines then. Name's Nem. This here's the Lady Liberty. 'Mon in." The ship was a pale green. Jack shrugged.

"Should look more like Mega Maid if they were going to name her that." Jack mumbled to himself as he followed the teen onto the ship.

"Da! DAA! We got a passenger!" The kid bellowed as he left Jack in the aft near a jump seat.

Jack shrugged and waited for the kid's father to get back.

The captain walked back after Jack felt the engines rumble to life under the decking. It wasn't a large ship. "Howdy, name's Saunders. I hear y'll be needing teh get to Gonghe?"

"I've got cash." Jack told him.

"A'ight. Yah got a name?"

Jack pondered what to say. The guy could be a movie buff. Best to go with something less obvious than his usual jokes. His dad's name would do. "Name's James." Jack told the other man.

"Alliance be lookin fer somon at looks like you."

"I wouldn't know. I was here on business and it's concluded." Jack told him.

The man named Saunders nodded slowly. He didn't seem to believe Jack but he didn't seem disinclined to fly him out of here either. "Well, take a seat and buckle up, we best get in the air afore they start to thinking hard about where yah might be. James."

"Right." Jack said, knowing for certain the other man hadn't bought it.

Nem wandered back to collect Jack's fare for his ride and returned to the cockpit. Jack noted the father was dressed in what he'd learned was a 'browncoat' officer's jacket and decided the man was taking Jack's business out of spite. Jack was ok with that. A man who was thumbing his nose at the system was unlikely to spread your business around at some later time.

Once they were through the planetary atmosphere Jack unbuckled and looked for the captain. He was in the cockpit reading in apparent boredom.

"Don't want to know yer business. Ta me yer just another fare. We clear on that?" The man said to Jack absently in warning.

Jack nodded in understanding. "Actually, I was hoping you knew where someone might be."

"Who like?"

"Gentleman by the name of Augustus Shu. You know him?"

"Can't say I've ever heard of him." Saunders told him. "'S a big Verse though. 'Taint no telling."

"Yah, I guess so. All right, well, I met him on Gonghe so that's where I'm going to look for him first, hopefully someone there will knew where he is."

"Told yah I don't want ta know yer business feller. Let's keep things casual like."

Jack nodded. "All right. I'll just go hang out in the back then."

"Don't touch nothin' neither."

"Yah sure, you betcha." Jack agreed.