505 Red Sky

O'Neill ground his teeth as he realized their rough landing through the annulus should have been a harbinger of this totally fucked up mission. Elves, yeah sure, they looked like elves. He was totally pissed at the Asgard whom he regarded as friends.

Carter had overridden some safety protocols to get them a lock. Maybe she was a bit irresponsible but she was pushed to accomplish the impossible every day and O'Neill realized, full well, he was the impatient one doing a lot of the pushing.

The Asgard would not help. Their interference would have jeopardized the many other worlds, including Earth, covered by the Protected Planets Treaty. So again it was put upon Carter to resolve the problem, a problem of the imminent death of this world. In three months all plant life would die and with that all life.

Sam took the disaster on her shoulders. She concocted a solution, ridiculously expensive, and with a slim to none chance of success but they had to try. So within three weeks the SG teams specializing in engineering were well on their way to erecting a platform and assembling a missile to send an exotic element into their sun.

And the radical faction of the population blew it up, killing airmen from Earth who were merely trying to help them. Some of their own perished and many were injured

His team had never seen O'Neill so angry. Some of his people were killed on a whim of a fanatic while they were working to save these people.

The adrenaline was pumping into Jack's system with every beat of his racing heart. He didn't hear anything. Didn't see anything except that loathsome, grinning, fucking coward he wanted so badly to kill. He wanted it so badly he could taste it. If killing him would bring his men back he wouldn't have restrained himself. And he was using every bit of restraint he had, his hands trembled trying to take control of his anger. Killing Malchus would only bring more death and destruction.

He wanted to wash his hands of these people and leave them to their fate. But his better angels, Carter and Daniel, convinced him to give it one last try. Teal'c was the only one unphased by O'Neill's anger, since he himself understood the wrath one felt at the pointless waste of your troops' lives.

They tried again and Sam was convinced they failed again. However when they were about to take their leave the sun returned to its former state. Had they in fact accomplished this or was it the Asgard?

After her contact with the Ascended being Sam was more aware of the fact that no one on the base was her intellectual equal, at least when it came to theoretical astrophysics. Was she merely confident in her field or had she become intellectually arrogant? Sam returned to the SGC feeling insecure. She wondered if she should be making these life altering decisions. Should she be in the field, flying by the seat of her pants, or should she return to theoretical science? Was it courage (the field unit) versus safety (the lab)? Hubris versus self-doubt? With this disaster would she become overly cautious and could this lead to further disasters? (And the thing the Colonel hated the most about Malchus was his cowardice.)

Was she blindly blundering through the galaxy leaving how many disasters in her wake?

Sam didn't think only of herself. Not only these past few weeks, it was the past few months that had been trying for all of them. It was easy for them to give support to one another but the colonel stood alone, especially from her. Sam worried that O'Neill was troubled. He nearly killed a man and before that was nearly killed himself. Today the colonel attended the servicemen killed in the explosion on K'Tau. Sam would have accompanied him but was detained by a last minute problem with the dialing program.

That evening Sam drove over to his house. His truck was in the driveway and the house was dark. Sam climbed the ladder on the side of the house to his aerie. She got a "Hey Carter" before her head cleared the roof. He sat there on the deck, knees bent and a water bottle dangling from his fingers.

Sam greeted him with a smile and a "Sir".

"Want something to drink?" He asked as he dug around in a small cooler. "I've got...ah...water and water."

"Do you want me to go pickup…" Sam started to ask.

"No, thanks Sam, Reynolds has night duty and I'm on call in case something weird happens."

She laughed. "Weird? Isn't that our usual."

He pulled a cushion off a chair, put it on the deck next to him and she sat down.

Then she asked "Stargazing?"

It was a very cloudy night, threatening to rain.

"Ya know I used to find it calming, the planets and their moons, the constellations." He waved his hand toward the sky. "But now it's wondering what star had gone nova or turned into a brown dwarf destroying whatever civilizations were on the planets orbiting them. What planet's population is at war or is some enemy bombarding them from space."

"You still like to fish?" Sam asked.

"It's almost the same with fishing. A pond looks so peaceful, rippling water reflecting the trees and sky. But below it's big fish eat the little fish. Lurking leeches and snapping turtles. From above it's kingfishers, herons and the odd fisherman." Jack was sounding rather depressed.

"I thought these hobbies were moments of Zen for you." Sam said.

"I haven't completely ruined my favorite hobbies. I still enjoy looking at the night sky. But I've taken to clipping the barbs off my hooks."

She turned, leaned over and put her arms around him. She felt a little awkward but this is why she came over here. "When I needed a hug you have always been there for me." He hesitated for a fraction of a second then fiercely hugged her back. They both could have stayed like this forever, drawing strength and peace from one another. He slowly loosened his hold and to his surprise she kissed his cheek. His fingertips lingered on her arms as she pulled away. Sam got up and left with a simple "Good night sir". If she didn't leave then she was definitely going to stay.

While they had been talking the sky cleared somewhat and between the scattered clouds stars filled the night.