Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. A few well known names may be used, but everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.

-oOo-

Araiansu – Chapter 2

After Thor visually hung up Sam said, "Can I please get a hot bath and fresh clothes?"

She grinned when a bathtub appeared with steaming water, complete with all the trimmings. On the floor beside the bathtub was a new white bathrobe.

Ranma blushed when Sam started removing her furs. He looked away.

Sam asked, "Can we get another bathtub and robe for Ranma?"

A duplicate appeared right beside.

She said, "Come on, I know you have seen me naked, just as I've seen you. Let's get clean."

Ranma stripped down and got in the hot bath. He then just sighed in relief. "Oh I missed this. I know we wanted to make one, but I really missed this."

"Heck yes. Say, assuming Thor can send us back, and assuming he is willing to send you to my world, do you want to come back with me?"

"What about?" Ranma trailed off.

"Us?" she asked. "I'm horrible with relationships. All mine failed and I'm well like ten years older than you, except I guess I'm not."

"I had three fiancees. I guess there I sort of still do, except I picked none of them. I thought I loved Akane at one point, but I'm sure now that it wasn't love. Shampoo, well, there was nothing there beyond she was cute, and I just didn't feel that way for Ukyo. I would have ended up a waiter in a restaurant. I do not want to go back, not if I can do something useful in your world. I hope I can keep being your friend."

"Always," Sam insisted. "As for the others, well I've been I'll admit it, tempted to kiss you more than a few times, but the last thing I need is pregnant. Heck, I thought about kissing your girl form, but I was afraid to Jinx it; afraid to risk the relationship we had built. Look, I'm not promising, and whether or not anything between us works out, I will give you a recommendation for the Air Force academy."

"Thanks."

"Actually, I'll probably just get either Jack or General Hammond to have someone give you a serious interview, since I would be considered too close to be impartial. Still, just show them some of what you can do, and you will be fine."

"Do I have to go back to school?"

"You finished what, High School?"

He nodded.

"It would be a good idea, but we could also use your skills in the field. Look, I honestly can't say more than I have to. I took an oath, but if you want I can assure you that your skills could save lives. You would still have to catch up everywhere you are behind, but I could help you there."

"Could I be on your team?" he asked.

"That wouldn't be mine or even my team leader's decision. General Hammond could decide that you would save more lives on another team, and such a decision could easily be the correct one. Also, if we did get into a relationship you couldn't be on my team. It isn't allowed."

"Oh," said an obviously disappointed Ranma. He then added with a smile, "So, let's stay friends?"

Sam's smile was brilliant before she said, "Let's hope it works. They might still split us up."

Ranma said, "I'll ask for them not to. Hopefully they want my skills enough to keep us on a team."

"I hope so too."

"So, since we have a week to train…"

Sam threw a washrag at him.

He threw it back before blushing furiously at her exposed breasts.

She rolled her eyes. "You have your own pair, that look better than mine."

"Do not," he found himself saying before he covered his mouth.

She smiled, and rinsed herself off, before relaxing back in the tub.

She was astounded when five days later she actually used ki. Oh it wasn't a lot, and if Ranma hadn't pointed it out she would not have noticed it. She had diverted one of his punches with her forearm, and had unconsciously reinforced her arm with ki. He had then told her to keep fighting.

She was a living bruise that night when she walked over to his bed and waited for him to lay down.

He said, "You have your own bed you know? The room created it over there."

She glared at him. "Are you really complaining?"

"No, but I worry I won't be able to be on your team if we…"

"We will figure that out, now lay down. I ache. I was hoping you could try that thing you do with your hands and energy to ease muscles."

"Sure, let me change."

"But?" she whined.

Ranma smiled. "My ki changes when I change to an extent. My female forms should be more compatible with your own."

"Fine," she huffed.

Ranma splashed some water and became female. She laid down with Sam laying on top of her. Both were in their robes.

Ranma gently let her ki flow through Sam's shoulders while focusing on feelings of care and warmth that he hoped would heal or at least help.

"Whoa, that is nice," Carter muttered sleepily before falling the rest the way to sleep.

This was right when Thor beamed in.

"Am I interrupting something?" He didn't seem to actually be concerned that he was, just curious.

Ranma was still awake. "She just got to sleep. I was attempting to get her to use her ki. She made some progress, but I'm afraid I bruised her pretty badly sparring. I was trying to heal her."

Thor blinked.

Thor said softly, "Your method is interesting. The Nox use something similar. Would you like me to beam you both to my ship and heal her?"

Ranma said softly, "Let me wake her and ask."

Thor nodded.

Ranma sent a burst of the same healing ki into her, but it only caused her to let out a soft moan. She blushed and then stopped before shaking her gently.

"Whaa? Can't be morning already."

"Thor is here."

Sam blinked the sleep out of her eyes before saying, "Hello Thor. Is it time to go?"

"Unless you have something more you need to do?" he asked curiously.

"No." She got the rest the way off Ranma and winced before stretching some more. "That worked pretty well Ranma."

"Did you wish me to heal you further after we transport aboard my ship?"

"Actually, if you could check us both, we would appreciate it."

They beamed up in a flash.

Sam was used to it and after a short glance returned her gaze to Ranma's face as she immediately looked out the window. She said, "We are in space."

"Yep," Sam popped the P. "My group has been known to be here now and then."

Thor appeared a few seconds later.

Pointing to Carter, he said, "The ship has identified the remnants of age regression on you. It is stable and not a problem. There are various small problems I can address if you wish, though you will have to enter a healing tube."

Sam said, "The age thing was something magical Ranma had. It saved my life."

"In that case it is best to leave it. Attempting to reverse it might just cause problems."

He turned to Ranma. "Asgard are not fond of magic, nor would I make any attempt to change what is a part of you. I can, however, fix some brain scarring and systemic trauma in your system if you wish. The brain scarring may be limiting your potential somewhat."

"Please," Ranma said. A flash of light and he disappeared.

Another flash and Sam did. The next morning they were back.

Thor said, "I took the liberty of extracting copies of just the memories of both of your travel to this universe. I can either return you to this Earth, or take you to the Earth from which Sam originates. The Asgard are familiar with the technology that transported Sam to this universe and I have determined its dimensional coordinates. Unfortunately, I have so far been unable to determine the coordinates for the world where Ranma originates. There was not enough information present in his memory and any residue that might have existed would have been destroyed by Sam's arrival on this world."

Ranma said, "That is fine. I would like to go with Sam, but is there something we can do to thank you for your efforts?"

Thor blinked. "The Asgard know of talents like yours. Unfortunately, our information is limited. Would you consent to developing the skill on our world?"

Sam said, "I would, but I really need to get back. My team gets in the strangest trouble. I would be worried for my planet."

Thor said, "While the Asgard do not approve of time travel, there is no actual prohibition in returning someone to their universe of origin at the time they left provided no one's timeline is crossed."

"Wait," Sam said. "Are you saying we could stay on your world, and maybe learn a bunch of stuff, then be returned to my universe just after I left it?"

"We would be unlikely to teach you Asgard science."

"Could we get a copy of current Earth science and some basic stuff like what I had access to back on my world?"

"That would be reasonable."

"Does your race have a cloning problem?"

"No."

"Wait, you don't have a cloning problem?"

"No. Are you saying your Asgard do?"

"Yes. Please, we owe our Asgard our lives. If teaching what we can or whatever we can do. Please help them. I think time may be running out for them."

Ranma said, "I'll help too."

"The Asgard High Council would make the final decision here, but it is very likely we would try to help them."

"Thank you," Carter said sincerely. "Thor. My Thor, saved me, my team, and our world several times."

"It pleases me to know that my counterpart would do so, though I am disturbed that things have been let go so far that it was necessary. What are the main threats in your universe?"

"Well there is the Goa'uld. We have won some battles, but there are still many system Lords. There is also a group of Goa'uld offshoots that call themselves Tok'ra, who fight against the Goa'uld and treat hosts well. I think they are dying without a Queen. There is your threat, the replicators. We have had some luck there, but they always come back."

"What are you doing there?" he asked surprised.

"It is a very long story," Sam said. "I could write it all down for you if you like."

"I will show you how to use the ships systems to copy memories."

"Thanks. I suppose let's go to your home world."

She turned to Ranma. "Are you okay with at least a few years more with just me and some Asgard?"

Ranma smiled. "Always."

Almost a month passed as they settled in on the Asgard home world of Othala. Ranma continued to improve his skill in the art, while Sam focused on the technological end of things, and took what lessons she could.

"Ranma, I need your help," said Sam.

"Always. What do you need?"

"You know the Asgard provided me technical data similar to what I would have had back in the SGC?"

"Sure."

"They will not help me advance it. The assistance they are giving so far pushes the boundaries of their rules. I had hoped to build a ship or something useful we can take back in the time we have."

"You want me to help. I really don't think I could do what you can do…"

Sam looked at him with a gentle expression. "You don't really believe that do you? Your brain is healed. You are very intelligent. Heck we even have the Asgard teaching systems to help. They won't go beyond what turns out to be a bit more tech than I expected, but with my help you could learn any of it you wanted to."

"What about the art?" he asked.

Sam smiled. "While you won't have as much time to practice martial arts, you will still have some if we divide our time carefully, and I for one want to learn what you can teach me."

"Okay."

"That's it? Okay?" said Sam exasperated with how easy he agreed.

"Sure," said Ranma, who ducked a pillow Sam through at him.

"Okay, we are going to try to teach you as fast as is possible, but it is essential that each lesson is learned before the next, otherwise it will not work."

"I understand. The art is the same. You first learn to fall."

-oOo-

Ranma learned. He often found himself reviewing the material Sam had earlier gone over. In one year he was already though the equivalent of a very selective engineering program in college. They both knew that they were skipping some areas, but if they needed them they would return to them. He well remembered Sam's lecture on their goal, though she had repeated variations of it several times.

"Okay Ranma, the key parts about space travel are as follows. First you need propulsion. Second you need shielding from solar radiation, particularly if your going to be in space long. Third you need environmental controls, principally recycling of oxygen, though water and food are also key considerations. Once you go beyond just moving in space to combat, you need to protect yourself from enemy weapons, either through being able to get out of the way or take the hits, and you need to be able to fight back. Nuclear weapons could be one solution, but the ships we are likely to face could shield against them."

"Rockets?" Ranma hazarded.

"Rocket engines are the best we know, but totally inadequate for serious space travel. Goa'uld ships have a form of sub light engines that I don't honestly understand, though thankfully there is more info here than I had back at the mountain."

"So you need those and a hyperdrive right?"

"Correct, and if I'm right you may have the key to one of those."

"I do?" he asked surprised.

"Your storage space."

"Huh?" asked a confused Ranma.

"You are accessing an alternative form of space. What is more I've watched you and everything you pull out is instant. You are accessing objects stored in a separate region of, for lack of a better term, space, that is tied to you, and you are doing it instantly. In essence you are moving objects from one space to another instantly."

"You think we can use hidden weapons to move a ship?"

"Probably not, unless you have the ki reserves to move something the size of say a big jet."

"No," he said absently.

"Can you setup one of those so I can use it?"

"Unfortunately not," Ranma said. "I'm not an expert, but I can feel the ki drain. Even if you stayed with a smaller one, you have to be able to constantly and precisely control your ki and train yourself to do it all the time."

"What happens if you don't?" asked Sam.

"I'm not entirely sure. I couldn't get Mousse to answer. I'm pretty sure everything will be ejected away from you, but if you had a lot of bladed weapons not in sheathes it could probably be fatal."

"You don't right?" asked Sam concerned.

"No, I went back to the smaller size, and only have the one dagger, and it is in a sheathe, plus a filled backpack, just for cautions sake."

Sam said, "I hate to ask for it, but if we notified the Asgard could we do some tests with the field collapsing. We would start with a feather or something, or maybe a grain of rice, then increase it."

"Sure. I'd rather understand it. It would be a lot safer."

Ranma could hardly believe he was using hidden weapons to store a balloon. He tried smaller items, but the first item seemed to have a lower limit for the size. Several Asgard including Thor and Heimdall were observing. He deliberately cut the flow of ki only to be thrown across the room and slammed into the wall at thirty miles per hour. It was only an instinctive application of ki reinforcement that saved him from serious injuries.

A motion from Thor had him held in a beam and lowered gently to the ground.

"Crap! Are you alright Ranma? I never thought it would do this."

"Some broken bones. Can we not do that again? I'm not sure I'd survive something larger."

Thor said, "Agreed. Shall I transport you to a medical tube?"

"Please."

Ranma vanished in a burst of light.

Heimdall said, "It is a great pity that this is turning out so dangerous. We have a great deal of very fascinating data, which we will of course send you. Perhaps, we can determine a way to make this safe. Maybe, if the uncontrolled energy release was directed somehow."

Thor said, "It is also possible that this outcome was much better than the worst case outcome of even a simple repeat. A tiny part of that balloons mass was converted directly to energy when it did the uncontrolled subspace shift. I'm going to ban further tests on this for the next year unless they can be shown to be safe without risking lives."

"Oh," Sam said. "I understand and I agree. I had just hoped it would reveal some clue in how to build the drives I needed."

Heimdall said, "They have provided a great deal of new scientific data during this test that the Asgard did not have."

"Heimdall makes a valid point. I will try to get the available information related to the technologies you asked for increased. The final decision will rest with the council."

"I'll take whatever I can get. Earth has already been almost destroyed several times. I get that we might kill ourselves with the technology, but well, what choice do we have?"

Heimdall said, "It is not you we are concerned about. If your Earth is anything like the one we monitor from time to time, well we have great concerns. Much of the Earth's population is easily swayed by lies and simple manipulations. Seeing weapons such as you might build put under the control of those behind such artifice is a great concern to us, though if we can help our counterparts it may be that the Asgard in your dimension can be a check on the worst of it."

"Yah, I get it, and I agree. I will think on it and get Ranma to as well. I doubt either of us will find an easy answer, but we will try. Actually, now that I think of it, one solution would be to hand pick our crew and not put any of this technology directly under the control of Earth. There would be all kinds of trouble raised if I essentially went against orders and took other people including the rest of my team away from Earth, and we probably couldn't land on Earth again, so we would need a base on the moon or something. Damn, I would hate that. I love my world, but I don't have a better idea. Just the technology I am developing if placed on regular nuclear missiles could decimate any country on the planet."

Thor blinked. "So, you will do what is necessary?"

"I expected going through the gate to kill me long before now, and it would have, if not for Ranma. This is nothing compared to that. I'll have to talk to Ranma to see what he wants. If he decides not to, then he does. I hope he doesn't."

"If you both agree we will give you additional help. You could also have children if you wish to do so. They could also help in time and the Asgard would not mind helping with them."

"Oh, I'd have to get pregnant and I have so much to do, then there would be so much to do to raise children."

Heimdall added, "We can easily do that artificially if you wish."

Sam blushed. "Really?"

Thor nodded.

"Yah, that is going to be another conversation with Ranma. Unlike me, he is his actual age. I'm not sure he is ready to be a father. Heck, I'm not sure I'm ready to be a mother."

Thor added, "We merely mentioned it as a possibility though we did in truth hope you would have children one day and one or more might choose to stay."

"What?" Exclaimed Carter. "I thought you fixed your cloning problem."

Heimdall said, "We did, but we are still a dying race. A few of us decide not to continue every year and there are no replacements."

"I really don't know what to say. Even if many children were created from our genes, well two people are hardly bio diverse enough to recreate a civilization, or at least I didn't think they were."

Thor nodded. "They would be but a start. Eventually we would have to recruit others to carry on the Asgard legacy. We do not underestimate the difficulty of the task."

Sam blew her breath out. "I promise I will talk to Ranma, and even if we say no now, we may change our minds."

Thor said, "We will not speak of it again, unless you tell us you wish to do so, and any children that would stay would be your and your children's decision, not ours."

"Thanks… Just thanks."

-oOo-

Ranma passed out when he heard about it. "You want to have a kid?"

"Maybe a little? Seriously when else would I have time to do it? My job is likely to get me killed or too old before I could do so."

"With me?"

"Well, I did have a thing for Jack," she teased.

"But I…"

"Relax Ranma. I will always care for Jack. I can't help it, but I do truly care for you a very great deal too or we wouldn't be…" She trailed off.

Ranma blushed furiously.

"So kids?"

Ranma passed out again.

Sam snickered. "He can fight legendary demi gods, but the idea of being a father is too much."

She blew out a breath. He might be right. She was sure she wasn't ready either, no matter her actual age. They would need probably dozens of children to have a useful base, and with their technology they could get that. Then, if some stayed, they would need others brought in to expand their gene pool. What a mess.

She giggled as she suddenly thought of Tea'lc's raised eyebrow if she came back with a dozen or more children, maybe with Ranma in female form. Then again, she was fairly sure whatever his look it would instantly change to respect once Ranma flattened him, female form or not.

Next she thought of Daniel's and snickered. He would ignore everything and ask questions about life among the Asgard, then exclaim how amazing it was. He would probably flip when one of the kids did something that physics would say was impossible, then go on to quote some legend of such things.

Finally she thought of Jack's and burst out laughing. He would no doubt say something rude and funny at the same time. She then sobered. Seeing her with another she knew would hurt him, but life was funny like that, and she did love Ranma.

In truth the idea of becoming a parent scared her, even knowing the Asgard would help raise them. What did the Asgard remember about raising children? They hadn't had them in what thousands of years? Her children were all going to be geeks. She smiled fondly at that. Then she frowned. Clothes. She underlined the importance of clothes in her mind, and made a mental note to make sure Ranma did too.

Dozens was obviously an insane idea, no matter the Asgard need. Ranma and her eventually agreed on three, though somehow the Asgard talked them up from three to five. She still wasn't quite sure how they managed that. They were all so logical that it was hard to say no to their reasonable suggestions here and there. They tried to bring it higher, but even with help neither of them could imagine raising more. Both thought it would be unfair to the children.

Ranma promised fervently not to take off for fifteen years on a training trip, which amused Sam endlessly. She would hardly have agreed to this, if she doubted him so. Still his determination to treat their kids well did earn him a reward which they both appreciated.

Sam responded, "Just remember, if we somehow do ever meet your family again, they can't try to arrange any of their marriages."

"Would you?" Ranma hesitated. His words just seemed to trail off. He tried again, but he couldn't make the words form.

Sam smiled expectantly.

"This is hard," he whined.

Sam continued to smile, though she seemed just a touch amused now.

He got down on his knees.

"I really don't want to ever lose you, and I don't think your General will believe we are just friends when we get back, what with the kids and all…."

Curiously, she asked, "Would you really still choose to go without for potentially years just to be on my team?"

Ranma nodded.

"Then yes, but I still want a formal ceremony with my Dad and my brother when we get back."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. It is not as if the military rules are going to affect us."

He pulled her into a tight, yet not crushing hug, clearly using his precision control to make sure, that no matter what he never hurt her. She knew he could lift boulders, yet with her she was always treated like glass, unless they were sparring, and then he always did whatever it took to help her improve. She pulled her own arms around him tighter, taking the moment to just cherish and be cherished in his arms.

Jack was going to make fun of her. Teal'c was going to be amused. General Hammond was going to hate losing her. She knew all of this, but it was all okay. She doubted any of them would have any real regrets or hesitation in breaking away from the US military. Their job was bigger than that.

-oOo-

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