I stepped through the 'gate right behind Teal'c, I guess Sam and I hadn't taken too long before we followed. I felt Sam bump roughly into my back and I quickly reached a hand back to steady her before I headed down the ramp to face the General's questioning look.
"Colonel?" He asked.
"Uh permission for SG-1 to debrief immediately, Sir?"
"Of course Colonel, that is if no one from SG-1 is suffering from any injuries that need our immediate attention?" He asked, looking between the four of us.
"No Sir, we're perfectly fit to debrief." He turned on his heel and headed up to the briefing room, I followed, leading the way for SG-1.
"Now Colonel would you care to explain why SG-1 is back not only two days early, but also missing an alien woman we were responsible for?"
"Well Sir, seems we're not too popular in the galaxy anymore... the Goa'uld are out to kill off anyone who decides to make a treaty with us. The Balteri got word that the Goa'uld are headed in their direction and now they're moving planets, breaking off all ties with us as they go."
"Did you try to reason with them Colonel? I'm sure there's something we can do to help them and be able to maintain the treaty agreement."
"Frankly General, these people are a lot more advanced than us, if they needed our help they would have asked for it a long time ago."
"Son, are you suggesting that we just give up and let one of our most advanced allies slip through our fingers?"
"Sir, is what I'm saying is that they were unresponsive to any form of diplomacy. Now the SGC isn't known for its giving up and walking away, but I'd really like to not piss the Balteri off."
"Colonel, you know that's what I'd like to avoid myself."
"Sir," I took a quick look around the troubled table. "Request permission for SG-1 and SG-8 to return to Balteria tomorrow to try and re-negotiate with the people there?"
"Colonel, you said yourself that they told you the Goa'uld are on their way to that planet. What if they're waiting for you when you go through the Stargate? That's not a risk I'm willing to take with our personnel."
"So we'll send a MALP through to check out the situation, Sir we *can* do this, we know the people and the land... Balteria is one place I know we could take out some Goa'uld." Hammond stared at me as if I'd just said something crazy- I don't know why he was surprised, I say things like that all the time. "Or we could just send a MALP through and if the coast is clear go through ourselves?"
"I will allow SG-1 and SG-8 to go through the Stargate at 0900 tomorrow if there is no sign of Goa'uld activity at that time."
"Thank you Sir." I said truthfully, before looking around the table.
"Dismissed." He stated before standing. The four of us made it to the infirmary quickly... we all either wanted to be alone as soon as we could or together as fast as possible.
Janet Frasier managed to get us out in record time, she didn't even waste time torturing me. Soon Sam and I found ourselves alone in our car heading for her house.
"I'm sorry, I should have fought Lauprezin harder."
"You did what you could, she had us removed before either of us could do or say anything... though I guess that was their point." I reached out and took her hand.
"I love you Sam."
"I love you too." She squeezed my hand, and on that note the rest of the drive was spent in resigned silence.
After several hours of sitting around doing nothing, we both managed to come to the conclusion that trying to *think* that night, before we actually knew anything, was probably not a wise thing to do. The walk to Sam's bedroom seemed to take longer than usual, but we didn't take it any more slowly than usual, I think we were just weary about that room, the room where we'd made love and made plans... we needed each other to get through this but the thought of complicating an already complicated situation even further had us both on edge.
"How's your arm feeling?" I asked, as we crawled into our separate sides of the bed.
"I'm not sure Sir, everything feels pretty numb right now."
"I understand." I overlooked her slip of 'Sir' and instead pulled her tightly against me. "Do you think you'll be able to sleep?"
"I don't think so, I just keep thinking about her growing up without us, without Earth, and never knowing about the sacrifices and triumphs of the SGC."
"She'll live here, with us. I don't care if we've gotta kidnap Terrika- we're getting our daughter back." Sam snuggled deeper into my body.
"I know." She whispered quietly. "Jack? What do you think she'll look like?"
"Our daughter? Oh I don't know, I had kinda thought she'd have blonde hair and bright blue eyes like her mother."
"Really? I think of her with blonde hair and your brown eyes, she'll have to be tall- I don't think it would be possible for us to produce someone short."
"Yeah, I think you're right about that. I can't wait to see which one of us is right." I kissed her head before thanking *the* God that we were able to forget our fears for a while in fantasyland.
We didn't eat or bathe the next morning, we just barely had our teeth brushed and our clothes changed by the time we made it to Cheyenne Mountain. As the two of us entered the control room SG-6 disembarked from a three week mission, as always, they had a lot of news to catch up on. General Hammond welcomed them back before turning to me.
"You're here early son."
"Just getting warmed up for a game of find the friendlies, Sir." He gave me a knowing grimace before turning to Carter.
"Major, if you feel the MALP's ready to travel we'll move the recon up."
"Yes Sir." She nodded, sparing me a tight smile as she left to inspect the average looking MALP in the Gateroom.
While Carter was examining her over grown remote-controlled car Teal'c and Daniel entered the control room with displeasure written clearly on their faces- thankfully Sam signalled that she was ready before either of them could voice their complaints. I watched the wormhole activate and the MALP make it's way up the ramp and into oblivion, this should never get old.
"Sir, it's arrived on the other side." I heard Sam's voice close by, so close I realised she had walked right past me to sit at the computer.
"Are you getting a signal?" I asked, leaning over and placing a hand casually on her shoulder as I looked at the screen.
"Yes, Sir." She tapped a couple of keys and soon we were looking at the Balteri Stargate, noticing that it was no longer necessary for me to lean over Sam's shoulder I straightened up and watched as she took control of the MALP and moved it on it's short journey heading for the city.
"The city appears to be deserted." Teal'c stated, from somewhere off to my left.
"There's no way they could have evacuated so fast."
"It seems that they are more advanced than we originally thought."
"Well if they're so smart why are they running from the Goa'uld?"
"The Goa'uld would most likely join together to extinguish such a formidable adversary, it would be in their best interest to just leave." Teal'c deadpanned, there are times he can be so arrogant about the capabilities of the Jaffa and Goa'uld.
We scanned around for a while, there was nothing to see, seems Balteri City really had been abandoned.
"Sir, permission for SG-1 to go to Balteria and search for--"
"Denied." He interrupted. "SG-1, I believe we should continue this conversation in the briefing room." So we followed the man upstairs, there was really no other option. I managed to manoeuvre myself behind Teal'c and Daniel as we went up the stairs to be with Sam, she looked so disappointed I felt like I failed her, I didn't know what I was feeling exactly but it was verging on the loss I felt when Charlie died, but no, this child was coming back, there was no other option.
"I'm sorry son, I know how much this child means to you but the fact still remains that Terrika is pregnant with her own child, the fact that it is half human doesn't change that. If she doesn't want to give up her child any longer then that's her decision. I'm sorry, but there will be no further search for Balteri on Balteria Major or any other planet." It was the end of a conversation I had managed to keep going for over half an hour, it seemed Hammond had won and we had lost everything. The moment Hammond finished this last sentence Sam was up from her chair and out of the room- I needed to follow her, to be with her through this, for us to comfort each other through this. I stayed though, sometimes you do things and you don't know why, well I quickly found out why. We all stood and started to calmly walk out before I heard Daniel speak up.
"Sir, General, the child isn't exactly half alien." This got a good 'huh?' look from Hammond.
"No Daniel." I murmured under my breath, as he rounded the table to stand in front of the General.
"What do you mean Son."
"Well it sort of became and unwritten part of our treaty agreement Sir, the child Terrika is carrying isn't hers at all. It's completely human."
"Well whose is it then."
"It's still mine Sir."
"Only Major Carter is the mother, not the alien woman Terrika." Teal'c finished my sentence for me.
"Colonel do you know how many--" Carter came back in the room, her eyes were red and her face was blotchy but she'd got herself together and I knew she'd been outside the door the entire time.
"Sir, we'll do what ever you need us to do, but could the Colonel and I please just go after our baby? SG-1 doesn't even have to come into it, just let us go through the Stargate and go from there." I put an arm around her shoulder, I figured that considering both of our careers had been ruined anyway it didn't hurt to show a little physical support.
"The rest of SG-1 would be willing to go too." Daniel said getting a nod from Teal'c to show his support.
"I'm sorry, I still can not allow you to go through the Stargate." He started to go towards his office.
"Sir, we've got to go, this is a child we're talking about here... an American child. She needs to be raised here, with her own people, she's never going to fit in there, she's not going to be telepathic like them, she'll never have the same colouring as the other people around her, she can't be allowed to grow up like that."
"I'm sorry Colonel."
"Sorry isn't good enough, how would you feel if one of your grand daughters was out there? How would you feel knowing she was being hunted by the Goa'uld because of who her parents are? Sorry is not good enough for the little girl you are sentencing to death!"
Okay... when trying to get the General to see your way it is best not to piss him off. The SGC has very boring holding cells and I had way too much energy, I wanted to be out there doing something, I wanted to be out there finding my child. I wondered if they'd keep me there until my court marshal or if they'd ship me off to some nice government funded asylum, either way I was still no closer to seeing my daughter. Suddenly the door opened and Daniel rushed in to unlock my cell.
"Daniel?"
"Are you coming Jack? I'd have thought you'd know a jail break when you saw one." I followed him out and down the corridor.
"Where's Carter?"
"Zatting her way to the control room, Teal'c's collecting weapons and supplies... sorry it took us so long, they've made it harder to hijack the gate since the last time we did this." And so eight hours after I got myself 'arrested', we left through the Stargate on a mission we had a higher chance of dying on than returning from.
I've heard about mothers who can lift entire cars to save their children who are trapped beneath, it's because their anxiety and maternal affection which causes certain hormones to be released. I never thought I'd have a reaction like that, but I guess that zatting half the people in the SGC could somehow be related to my need to be with my child. I was really surprised that once the three of us had managed to work through the electronics and logistics of the plan that is was so easy to get the Colonel out of his cell and to the Gateroom without meeting very much resistance. Of course we were operating on a zat first, send flowers later protocol so there weren't many people conscience enough to try and stop us. We took sufficient supplies with us to last for several weeks, maybe a couple of months if we rationed- however long this was going to take things would never be easy again, that was clear to us all.
On the other side, things looked pretty much the same as they had the previous day, and the day before... the whole place was just desolate, it was like the apocalypse came to Balteria Major and life just... stopped. It was hard for me to imagine that that was where we lived for a few months, where we even conceived a child.
"So, where do we look first?" Daniel asked.
"The Council Building." Teal'c suggested, or was it ordered? Well whichever it was that's where we ended up searching. We looked for hours, through desks, through stacks of 'paper' (the Balteri don't use paper per se but they do have a much more advanced synthetic parchment).
"Well this has been an incredible waste of time." Jack stated, as we finished in Lauprezin's private chambers. "It's not like they'd leave a big sign out for the Goa'uld saying 'Hey we've gone to ABC-123!'"
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Daniel yelled from Lauprezin's bedroom. "But I think Jack's right... the Balteri wouldn't leave any way for the Goa'uld to find them."
"So are we done here?"
"It appears we are." Teal'c stated, coming out of the bathroom. "Perhaps we should investigate the other public and private buildings."
"Or not. From what I remember the Goa'uld are due here oh, about now... I say we get out of here before we become some bad ass snake's play things."
"Where are we planning on going once we get out of here?"
"I was hoping some of our allies would assist us, harbour us actually, and maybe help us locate the Balteri- we know from the treaty discussions that the Balteri have met the Nox and the Tollan."
"So we've gotta go to Tollana." As if things in our lives could ever be that easy. We concluded our search of everything we could think of on Balteria- finding nothing, before we went back to the Stargate.
"Daniel dial Tollana." Jack ordered, as the sky became ominously darker. "Now what the hell is that?"
"It appears we may soon be in the presence of a 'bad ass snake'." Despite the utter terror of the moment and Daniel taking the time to look up the address for Tollana, we all managed to spare Teal'c a smile.
"Can you dial any faster Daniel?"
"I'm going as fast as I can." He said, before pushing the last symbol, allowing the wormhole to spring to life.
"Okay, everybody through." We all took off at an all out run... we never reached the gate, we did however get up close and personal with the bright gold walls of a Goa'uld mother ship.
"Um... I'm just gonna guess that the Tollans didn't decide to redecorate." Jack said, rubbing his head that smacked closely to mine against the wall. "Remind me to never be running when we're ringed up."
"I wonder which Goa'uld has um, got us?"
"Oh don't worry Daniel, these guys have a way of showing up... to gloat, and stuff."
"Any ideas on how to get us out of here Teal'c?"
"None Major Carter."
"It's a good thing that we usually get our selves out of this kind of situation on our own, 'cause I don't anticipate the SGC coming to our rescue." There was nothing we could do- it's amazing how our day started out with us once again going against our own people for something we thought to be more important- and then we were stuck looking at walls absolutely glowing with golden hieroglyphs and wondering about our fates.
Three hours later, we were greeted by our first view of our captors- Jaffa, many bearing the mark of Apophis but there were also several others in there too, so I was guessing a lesser Goa'uld had absorbed the Jaffa of other Goa'uld we had killed as well. We'd heard of this happening before, just never seen it first hand.
"Shol'va, your God wishes to see you." The First Prime came to us and I couldn't help but stare at his gold emblem- it was one of the strangest things I'd ever seen, like a cow on speed... okay Jack *had* rubbed off on me.
"Excuse me, but who is 'his god'?"
"Silence Tau'ri!" The First Prime yelled before his minions roughly grabbed Teal'c up and drug him out of the room.
"Good going Daniel, maybe Teal'c'll be able to get more information out of them."
"Jack, now is not the time for sarcasm."
"Daniel, sarcasm's all I have now, if you don't remember we're here to retrieve a child. Our child, Sam's and mine, and I'm not stopping until we get her; so if some Goa'uld have to get all bitchy before we can go out and find our baby then they'd better just get it over with because I'm sick of these damn snake heads." He kicked the wall for good measure, and out of respect for our recovering friendship with Daniel I left him to it and stayed on the other side of the room.
It was much later when Teal'c was finally returned to us, and thankfully Jack hadn't scuffed the walls or anything to enrage the Jaffa any more than he was doing by looking at them- at all.
"It appears we have a large problem O'Neill." Teal'c stated, sitting down with a 'thud' once the incredibly PMSy Jaffa had left.
"Who's the snake in charge around here?"
"The Goa'uld is the one system Lord I had hoped we would never have to confront."
"Why Teal'c? We defeated Sokar, I didn't think they could get any worse than that."
"They do indeed get worse, this Goa'uld is on a crusade to destroy all life that was not spawned on the planet of the Tau'ri."
"Why?"
"Because she feels that all other races pose a threat to her- the races of your world have been unable to evolve the complex societies on other worlds as the races of the Nox and Tollan have."
"She? The Goa'uld is a she?" Jack asked.
"Yes, she is now one of the most powerful System Lords in existence."
"And if she's so powerful why haven't you mentioned her before now?"
"I did not believe her to be a threat as you are *of* the Tau'ri."
"So are you saying this Goa'uld is a *friend* to the Tau'ri 'cause I remember the last time someone said that."
"No O'Neill I am not, I believe we should attempt to escape as soon as possible."
"Teal'c, is this the first time you have met this Goa'uld?" I asked.
"No, I have met her and her Jaffa in battle on two occasions."
"I thought that when the system lords did battle, they did it to the death."
"No, on one occasion she mated with Apophis, the child was Harsesis and destroyed herself at a young age. The second time they came to 'agree to disagree'" He said the last phrase oddly, as if he couldn't quite get his tongue around it. "They then separated their locations. Upon Apophis' death it appears she has not only absorbed his Jaffa, but I believe she has also claimed his territory as well."
"Is it just me or does Apophis seem to have a way with women?" Jack quickly sent an apologetic glance in Daniel's direction, but he didn't even seem to have noticed the reference in the first place.
"On many occasions Apophis attempted to create a host for his later use- he never succeeded." I thought about the young boy Shifu and wondered about the other children Apophis created and destroyed for his own purposes- children growing up with the express purpose of being empty vessels.
Our Goa'uld captor, whom had not graced us with her presence or been given a name, left us in the holding room for several hours while her Jaffa came in periodically to make sure we were all still present and accounted for.
"So this Goa'uld only likes people from Earth?" Jack asked.
"She believes them to be the only worthy hosts, and as I stated earlier the people of the Tau'ri do not pose a threat to her due to their lack of technological development."
"What about the transposed humans from Earth?"
"She claims to be the creator of all Tau'ri, on your planet or elsewhere."
"Teal'c, what is her name?"
"She calls herself Taweret."
"Of course!" Daniel's face brightened up like when we found the petrified Asgard on P1X-656. "Taweret was a household goddess- the goddess of childbirth and motherhood in Ancient Egypt, she was mother, creator, and protector of all. I've hypothesised for a long time that the term Tau'ri is associated with Taweret and this proves it!" He gesticulated excitedly, obviously forgetting in the wake of this scientific discovery that we were being held captive by this mother Goa'uld.
"Danny, any of this tell you how to get us out of here?"
"Um... no."
"Carter, let me guess- another escape proof room?"
"Yes Sir, and I don't think Dad's going to come help us out this time."
"Just as well. He'd probably get himself caught again and Jacob's a pessimist anyway." I smiled before the door was opened and after giving my irrational hope time to fall I was grabbed roughly by two Jaffa.
"Where we goin' guys?"
"Silence Tau'ri!"
"I just want to know our plans for the day."
"Your god Taweret wishes to see you."
"But I had an earlier appointment." Needless to say we were soon kneeling (by force) in front of the most 'unique' looking Goa'uld I'd ever seen.
"Uh Daniel?"
"Taweret is the hippopotamus goddess." He whispered quickly, as the woman was assisted into a standing position by 5 of her Jaffa. I guess I can see it now- you're impersonating a Goddess who is historically represented by a hippopotamus so you're going to want a host that... resembles one. In my experience all women who are Goa'uld hosts are young and quite beautiful. I hate to say it- but that middle-aged woman, while undoubtedly evil, was a very refreshing change.
"Shol'va, it has been long since we last met. I am gladdened to see that you have allied yourself with my people- the people of the Tau'ri." Already I could tell this speech was more for her followers than the four of us- she wasn't even looking at any of us as she spoke.
"Er if we're *your* people why don't ya let us go, huh?"
"You are well known amongst the Goa'uld, I wish to discuss your tactics in the defeat of Apophis."
"Apophis... well he was an accident really... I mean we've been successful in *killing* him on several occasions- but until recently he's never actually stayed dead."
"Then you are of no use to me." She looked up- nodding to her Jaffa. "Kill them!"
"Hey, hold on a minute... it's not our fault... and didn't you say we're *your* people?" Jack defended as a staff weapon was pressed to his neck. We'd all learnt to never be positive of anything- I knew how I felt about Jack and how much I wanted to see our daughter born... but other than that things were pretty much up in the air concerning life and death.
"It seems the people of the Tau'ri no longer have the right to be called Tau'ri. We will first rid ourself of you and then remove all life from you planet." I glanced between Teal'c and Daniel on each of my sides, then beyond Daniel to Jack, we all seemed to be in accord as to our only choice... It was a long shot but we had no other hope- we took off running.
I didn't think I'd ever been more glad to have a headache... of course the *second* time in one day running right into a wall is never *fun* but the person who was standing over me more than made up for that.
"Are you unwell O'Neill?"
"Thor buddy, have I ever told you you've got great timing?"
"You have on many occasions O'Neill... though I am still not clear on the meaning of that phrase."
"Where's Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c?" I asked, once my immediate relief had abated.
"The were sent to our infirmary- they each sustained minor Goa'uld staff weapon wounds... do not worry, they are being well cared for."
"I'd still like to see them, if ya don't mind Thor."
"Of course, please follow me, maybe it would be best if you also had yourself inspected." I didn't like the sound of that... but I'd never felt better about heading for any type of infirmary.
In the infirmary I found Teal'c rubbing his Jaffa emblem as he jumped off a diminutive, Asgard sized bed.
"O'Neill... you are well?" He asked, taking stock of the room around him and finally both of our eyes fell on Daniel and Sam lying on opposite sides of the room.
Thor wandered over to another Asgard in the room- I guessed their version of our Doc Frasier... My first instinct was to get to Carter and make sure she was okay, but I stopped to think- the recent bad blood between SG-1 giving me something to consider when making my decision of whom to check on first.
Thankfully the decision was taken out of my hands as Thor and his friend *motioned* for me to join them next to Carter.
"O'Neill has Major Carter been with child?" Okay- that I was so not expecting.
"Uh that depends on your definition of the word 'with'." I was glad Teal'c had decided to check Daniel on the other side of the massive room- after so many months of hiding, the whole conversation was making me uncomfortable. The two Asgard just stared at me anyway- so I of course took it upon myself to expound on human... stuff. "She was 'with child' several months ago, but do to... our jobs we transferred the baby to another woman."
"I was unaware the humans of Earth had the technology to successfully complete this procedure"
"The humans of Earth didn't do it, we made a new ally and they did it for us." Thor's buddy tilted his head as if to say 'huh?' but Carter (thankfully) saved me from having to explain further by groaning and moving her hand to rub her forehead like the rest of us.
"Jack... what's going on, Thor!" She looked over and saw our Asgard buddy. "I thought we were--"
"Dead, yeah." I looked at her, knowing there was something different about her, but unable to put my finger on it. "Thor showed up just in time." She sat up and flexed both of her arms experimentally- that was when we both seemed to realise at the same time that her purple cast was missing.
"Uh Thor?" I asked, getting the little grey guy's attention. "You *borrow* something from Carter?"
"The immobiliser is a human development- it is not important now... she is fixed."
"You mean you can heal fractures?" We both asked at the same time.
"Yes... human bones are very fragile... we often come across humans with immobilisers on- we fix them."
"Thor's buddy- they're casts if you wanna talk like a human."
"Thank you Colonel O'Neill."
"You're welcome... just trying to make sure you've got your facts straight."
"How're Daniel and Teal'c?" Sam asked, before grabbing my shoulder to help her down from the small table.
"They look all right... Thor ya mind if we go check our team?"
"Of course not O'Neill... but I believe Sharcon wishes to question you and Major Carter further."
"Yeah... but first I've gotta check my team." We joined the others who just happened to still be moping over their aching heads. "What is it about these spaceship walls huh?" I sat down next to Daniel.
"We'd better stop getting beamed from ship to ship or I'm never gonna be able to translate... anything ever again." Daniel slammed himself back against the wall of the ship for added effect. "Ouch!"
"Danny if it were me... and thankfully it's not... I wouldn't do that." It was the first real moment we'd had together since SG-1 had miraculously come back together, and it was oddly comforting.
"Colonel O'Neill... we must continue our discussion now." It was Sharcon- I knew the two of us weren't going to get along very well. "Doctor Jackson, Teal'c- Thor is awaiting you on the bridge." And with that my friends were escorted out of the room.
"Jack, what discussion are we here to continue?" Sam asked, as Sharcon left us while he went and checked... something.
"They know you were pregnant, I was explaining the procedure to them when you woke up, they seemed oddly curious about it."
"If they're the Roswell greys everyone's always talking about then they've gotta know at least a little something about human reproduction."
"Major Carter is correct, we are quite expert at human reproduction, we are only uncertain of whom you allowed to perform the transfer of your child. "
"These great people from the planet we assume *you* rescued us from."
"You are referring to the Asgard protected planet Balteria Major?"
"Yes, that's the place."
"That planet has been abandoned."
"Yeah we know that, we'd really like your help in locating the former inhabitants though."
"The Goa'uld have made that an impossibility- the Asgard fleet can not spare any other ships to assist in the battle."
"So you're saying after all the times we've helped you, you can't just help us locate one *big* group of people?"
"You do know these people have our child right?" Sam asked, trying to get me to calm down a bit before I strangled the smug Asgard in front of me.
"We had assumed... and Major Carter- we have removed all traces that you have been with child, the Goa'uld would use that against your people if they found out."
"Thank you." I heard Sam murmur behind me, before I heard the door open and noticed she'd left me alone with Cher.
"I guess I'd better go too, wouldn't want to miss whatever it is Thor is telling my team." I left Cher looking oddly at my back, and myself wondering why Sam left in such a hurry.
I found the rest of SG-1, Sam included, crowded around Thor and his little view screen thingy.
"Hey guys, what'd I miss?"
"Oh nothing Jack," Daniel stated as if he didn't even notice I wasn't there. "Thor's just been telling us how he came to be here."
"Thor?"
"We received notice of the Goa'uld's new policy on Tau'ri relations- and Balteria being a long standing protected planet we came to assist whomever may have been living on the planet."
"So you're not familiar with the Balteri?" Sam asked.
"We were unaware of anyone inhabiting the planet, but we hold no other titles over it than that it is a protected world."
"Really? We thought the Balteri had been on Balteria for quite a while."
"No." Was all Thor said before Sharcon joined the five of us.
"Commander Thor, I believe you should come see this." And with that we were left alone.
"Ya know these Asgard ships, when they're not being overrun with bugs, are pretty boring." I leaned against the wall opposite Sam and Teal'c. "But has anyone else noticed how clean these floors are? I mean Thor and his buddies don't wear shoes or clothes or anything at all... and yet this place is *so* clean." No one felt the need to comment on my comment... that's all right; I hadn't expected them to anyway.
"Jack, if the Asgard have never heard of the Balteri how are we supposed to find them?"
"I don't know," I answered Daniel's question from beside me. "You and Teal'c can go home, but I'm not going back with out my daughter."
"Jack, as we said before... both Teal'c and I are here for both you and Sam. As Sam said, we are SG-1 and SG-1 looks after its self."
"Thank you Daniel." Sam murmured, before leaning back against the wall.
"Seeing as how it's 0200 on Earth right now, I'm going to suggest we all try to get some sleep." My team must have been as tired as I was because no one objected, Teal'c crossed his legs and went into a deep state of Kel-no-reem while both Daniel and Sam tossed themselves on the super clean floor. I followed suit and soon I lapsed into oblivion.
"Colonel?" He asked.
"Uh permission for SG-1 to debrief immediately, Sir?"
"Of course Colonel, that is if no one from SG-1 is suffering from any injuries that need our immediate attention?" He asked, looking between the four of us.
"No Sir, we're perfectly fit to debrief." He turned on his heel and headed up to the briefing room, I followed, leading the way for SG-1.
"Now Colonel would you care to explain why SG-1 is back not only two days early, but also missing an alien woman we were responsible for?"
"Well Sir, seems we're not too popular in the galaxy anymore... the Goa'uld are out to kill off anyone who decides to make a treaty with us. The Balteri got word that the Goa'uld are headed in their direction and now they're moving planets, breaking off all ties with us as they go."
"Did you try to reason with them Colonel? I'm sure there's something we can do to help them and be able to maintain the treaty agreement."
"Frankly General, these people are a lot more advanced than us, if they needed our help they would have asked for it a long time ago."
"Son, are you suggesting that we just give up and let one of our most advanced allies slip through our fingers?"
"Sir, is what I'm saying is that they were unresponsive to any form of diplomacy. Now the SGC isn't known for its giving up and walking away, but I'd really like to not piss the Balteri off."
"Colonel, you know that's what I'd like to avoid myself."
"Sir," I took a quick look around the troubled table. "Request permission for SG-1 and SG-8 to return to Balteria tomorrow to try and re-negotiate with the people there?"
"Colonel, you said yourself that they told you the Goa'uld are on their way to that planet. What if they're waiting for you when you go through the Stargate? That's not a risk I'm willing to take with our personnel."
"So we'll send a MALP through to check out the situation, Sir we *can* do this, we know the people and the land... Balteria is one place I know we could take out some Goa'uld." Hammond stared at me as if I'd just said something crazy- I don't know why he was surprised, I say things like that all the time. "Or we could just send a MALP through and if the coast is clear go through ourselves?"
"I will allow SG-1 and SG-8 to go through the Stargate at 0900 tomorrow if there is no sign of Goa'uld activity at that time."
"Thank you Sir." I said truthfully, before looking around the table.
"Dismissed." He stated before standing. The four of us made it to the infirmary quickly... we all either wanted to be alone as soon as we could or together as fast as possible.
Janet Frasier managed to get us out in record time, she didn't even waste time torturing me. Soon Sam and I found ourselves alone in our car heading for her house.
"I'm sorry, I should have fought Lauprezin harder."
"You did what you could, she had us removed before either of us could do or say anything... though I guess that was their point." I reached out and took her hand.
"I love you Sam."
"I love you too." She squeezed my hand, and on that note the rest of the drive was spent in resigned silence.
After several hours of sitting around doing nothing, we both managed to come to the conclusion that trying to *think* that night, before we actually knew anything, was probably not a wise thing to do. The walk to Sam's bedroom seemed to take longer than usual, but we didn't take it any more slowly than usual, I think we were just weary about that room, the room where we'd made love and made plans... we needed each other to get through this but the thought of complicating an already complicated situation even further had us both on edge.
"How's your arm feeling?" I asked, as we crawled into our separate sides of the bed.
"I'm not sure Sir, everything feels pretty numb right now."
"I understand." I overlooked her slip of 'Sir' and instead pulled her tightly against me. "Do you think you'll be able to sleep?"
"I don't think so, I just keep thinking about her growing up without us, without Earth, and never knowing about the sacrifices and triumphs of the SGC."
"She'll live here, with us. I don't care if we've gotta kidnap Terrika- we're getting our daughter back." Sam snuggled deeper into my body.
"I know." She whispered quietly. "Jack? What do you think she'll look like?"
"Our daughter? Oh I don't know, I had kinda thought she'd have blonde hair and bright blue eyes like her mother."
"Really? I think of her with blonde hair and your brown eyes, she'll have to be tall- I don't think it would be possible for us to produce someone short."
"Yeah, I think you're right about that. I can't wait to see which one of us is right." I kissed her head before thanking *the* God that we were able to forget our fears for a while in fantasyland.
We didn't eat or bathe the next morning, we just barely had our teeth brushed and our clothes changed by the time we made it to Cheyenne Mountain. As the two of us entered the control room SG-6 disembarked from a three week mission, as always, they had a lot of news to catch up on. General Hammond welcomed them back before turning to me.
"You're here early son."
"Just getting warmed up for a game of find the friendlies, Sir." He gave me a knowing grimace before turning to Carter.
"Major, if you feel the MALP's ready to travel we'll move the recon up."
"Yes Sir." She nodded, sparing me a tight smile as she left to inspect the average looking MALP in the Gateroom.
While Carter was examining her over grown remote-controlled car Teal'c and Daniel entered the control room with displeasure written clearly on their faces- thankfully Sam signalled that she was ready before either of them could voice their complaints. I watched the wormhole activate and the MALP make it's way up the ramp and into oblivion, this should never get old.
"Sir, it's arrived on the other side." I heard Sam's voice close by, so close I realised she had walked right past me to sit at the computer.
"Are you getting a signal?" I asked, leaning over and placing a hand casually on her shoulder as I looked at the screen.
"Yes, Sir." She tapped a couple of keys and soon we were looking at the Balteri Stargate, noticing that it was no longer necessary for me to lean over Sam's shoulder I straightened up and watched as she took control of the MALP and moved it on it's short journey heading for the city.
"The city appears to be deserted." Teal'c stated, from somewhere off to my left.
"There's no way they could have evacuated so fast."
"It seems that they are more advanced than we originally thought."
"Well if they're so smart why are they running from the Goa'uld?"
"The Goa'uld would most likely join together to extinguish such a formidable adversary, it would be in their best interest to just leave." Teal'c deadpanned, there are times he can be so arrogant about the capabilities of the Jaffa and Goa'uld.
We scanned around for a while, there was nothing to see, seems Balteri City really had been abandoned.
"Sir, permission for SG-1 to go to Balteria and search for--"
"Denied." He interrupted. "SG-1, I believe we should continue this conversation in the briefing room." So we followed the man upstairs, there was really no other option. I managed to manoeuvre myself behind Teal'c and Daniel as we went up the stairs to be with Sam, she looked so disappointed I felt like I failed her, I didn't know what I was feeling exactly but it was verging on the loss I felt when Charlie died, but no, this child was coming back, there was no other option.
"I'm sorry son, I know how much this child means to you but the fact still remains that Terrika is pregnant with her own child, the fact that it is half human doesn't change that. If she doesn't want to give up her child any longer then that's her decision. I'm sorry, but there will be no further search for Balteri on Balteria Major or any other planet." It was the end of a conversation I had managed to keep going for over half an hour, it seemed Hammond had won and we had lost everything. The moment Hammond finished this last sentence Sam was up from her chair and out of the room- I needed to follow her, to be with her through this, for us to comfort each other through this. I stayed though, sometimes you do things and you don't know why, well I quickly found out why. We all stood and started to calmly walk out before I heard Daniel speak up.
"Sir, General, the child isn't exactly half alien." This got a good 'huh?' look from Hammond.
"No Daniel." I murmured under my breath, as he rounded the table to stand in front of the General.
"What do you mean Son."
"Well it sort of became and unwritten part of our treaty agreement Sir, the child Terrika is carrying isn't hers at all. It's completely human."
"Well whose is it then."
"It's still mine Sir."
"Only Major Carter is the mother, not the alien woman Terrika." Teal'c finished my sentence for me.
"Colonel do you know how many--" Carter came back in the room, her eyes were red and her face was blotchy but she'd got herself together and I knew she'd been outside the door the entire time.
"Sir, we'll do what ever you need us to do, but could the Colonel and I please just go after our baby? SG-1 doesn't even have to come into it, just let us go through the Stargate and go from there." I put an arm around her shoulder, I figured that considering both of our careers had been ruined anyway it didn't hurt to show a little physical support.
"The rest of SG-1 would be willing to go too." Daniel said getting a nod from Teal'c to show his support.
"I'm sorry, I still can not allow you to go through the Stargate." He started to go towards his office.
"Sir, we've got to go, this is a child we're talking about here... an American child. She needs to be raised here, with her own people, she's never going to fit in there, she's not going to be telepathic like them, she'll never have the same colouring as the other people around her, she can't be allowed to grow up like that."
"I'm sorry Colonel."
"Sorry isn't good enough, how would you feel if one of your grand daughters was out there? How would you feel knowing she was being hunted by the Goa'uld because of who her parents are? Sorry is not good enough for the little girl you are sentencing to death!"
Okay... when trying to get the General to see your way it is best not to piss him off. The SGC has very boring holding cells and I had way too much energy, I wanted to be out there doing something, I wanted to be out there finding my child. I wondered if they'd keep me there until my court marshal or if they'd ship me off to some nice government funded asylum, either way I was still no closer to seeing my daughter. Suddenly the door opened and Daniel rushed in to unlock my cell.
"Daniel?"
"Are you coming Jack? I'd have thought you'd know a jail break when you saw one." I followed him out and down the corridor.
"Where's Carter?"
"Zatting her way to the control room, Teal'c's collecting weapons and supplies... sorry it took us so long, they've made it harder to hijack the gate since the last time we did this." And so eight hours after I got myself 'arrested', we left through the Stargate on a mission we had a higher chance of dying on than returning from.
I've heard about mothers who can lift entire cars to save their children who are trapped beneath, it's because their anxiety and maternal affection which causes certain hormones to be released. I never thought I'd have a reaction like that, but I guess that zatting half the people in the SGC could somehow be related to my need to be with my child. I was really surprised that once the three of us had managed to work through the electronics and logistics of the plan that is was so easy to get the Colonel out of his cell and to the Gateroom without meeting very much resistance. Of course we were operating on a zat first, send flowers later protocol so there weren't many people conscience enough to try and stop us. We took sufficient supplies with us to last for several weeks, maybe a couple of months if we rationed- however long this was going to take things would never be easy again, that was clear to us all.
On the other side, things looked pretty much the same as they had the previous day, and the day before... the whole place was just desolate, it was like the apocalypse came to Balteria Major and life just... stopped. It was hard for me to imagine that that was where we lived for a few months, where we even conceived a child.
"So, where do we look first?" Daniel asked.
"The Council Building." Teal'c suggested, or was it ordered? Well whichever it was that's where we ended up searching. We looked for hours, through desks, through stacks of 'paper' (the Balteri don't use paper per se but they do have a much more advanced synthetic parchment).
"Well this has been an incredible waste of time." Jack stated, as we finished in Lauprezin's private chambers. "It's not like they'd leave a big sign out for the Goa'uld saying 'Hey we've gone to ABC-123!'"
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Daniel yelled from Lauprezin's bedroom. "But I think Jack's right... the Balteri wouldn't leave any way for the Goa'uld to find them."
"So are we done here?"
"It appears we are." Teal'c stated, coming out of the bathroom. "Perhaps we should investigate the other public and private buildings."
"Or not. From what I remember the Goa'uld are due here oh, about now... I say we get out of here before we become some bad ass snake's play things."
"Where are we planning on going once we get out of here?"
"I was hoping some of our allies would assist us, harbour us actually, and maybe help us locate the Balteri- we know from the treaty discussions that the Balteri have met the Nox and the Tollan."
"So we've gotta go to Tollana." As if things in our lives could ever be that easy. We concluded our search of everything we could think of on Balteria- finding nothing, before we went back to the Stargate.
"Daniel dial Tollana." Jack ordered, as the sky became ominously darker. "Now what the hell is that?"
"It appears we may soon be in the presence of a 'bad ass snake'." Despite the utter terror of the moment and Daniel taking the time to look up the address for Tollana, we all managed to spare Teal'c a smile.
"Can you dial any faster Daniel?"
"I'm going as fast as I can." He said, before pushing the last symbol, allowing the wormhole to spring to life.
"Okay, everybody through." We all took off at an all out run... we never reached the gate, we did however get up close and personal with the bright gold walls of a Goa'uld mother ship.
"Um... I'm just gonna guess that the Tollans didn't decide to redecorate." Jack said, rubbing his head that smacked closely to mine against the wall. "Remind me to never be running when we're ringed up."
"I wonder which Goa'uld has um, got us?"
"Oh don't worry Daniel, these guys have a way of showing up... to gloat, and stuff."
"Any ideas on how to get us out of here Teal'c?"
"None Major Carter."
"It's a good thing that we usually get our selves out of this kind of situation on our own, 'cause I don't anticipate the SGC coming to our rescue." There was nothing we could do- it's amazing how our day started out with us once again going against our own people for something we thought to be more important- and then we were stuck looking at walls absolutely glowing with golden hieroglyphs and wondering about our fates.
Three hours later, we were greeted by our first view of our captors- Jaffa, many bearing the mark of Apophis but there were also several others in there too, so I was guessing a lesser Goa'uld had absorbed the Jaffa of other Goa'uld we had killed as well. We'd heard of this happening before, just never seen it first hand.
"Shol'va, your God wishes to see you." The First Prime came to us and I couldn't help but stare at his gold emblem- it was one of the strangest things I'd ever seen, like a cow on speed... okay Jack *had* rubbed off on me.
"Excuse me, but who is 'his god'?"
"Silence Tau'ri!" The First Prime yelled before his minions roughly grabbed Teal'c up and drug him out of the room.
"Good going Daniel, maybe Teal'c'll be able to get more information out of them."
"Jack, now is not the time for sarcasm."
"Daniel, sarcasm's all I have now, if you don't remember we're here to retrieve a child. Our child, Sam's and mine, and I'm not stopping until we get her; so if some Goa'uld have to get all bitchy before we can go out and find our baby then they'd better just get it over with because I'm sick of these damn snake heads." He kicked the wall for good measure, and out of respect for our recovering friendship with Daniel I left him to it and stayed on the other side of the room.
It was much later when Teal'c was finally returned to us, and thankfully Jack hadn't scuffed the walls or anything to enrage the Jaffa any more than he was doing by looking at them- at all.
"It appears we have a large problem O'Neill." Teal'c stated, sitting down with a 'thud' once the incredibly PMSy Jaffa had left.
"Who's the snake in charge around here?"
"The Goa'uld is the one system Lord I had hoped we would never have to confront."
"Why Teal'c? We defeated Sokar, I didn't think they could get any worse than that."
"They do indeed get worse, this Goa'uld is on a crusade to destroy all life that was not spawned on the planet of the Tau'ri."
"Why?"
"Because she feels that all other races pose a threat to her- the races of your world have been unable to evolve the complex societies on other worlds as the races of the Nox and Tollan have."
"She? The Goa'uld is a she?" Jack asked.
"Yes, she is now one of the most powerful System Lords in existence."
"And if she's so powerful why haven't you mentioned her before now?"
"I did not believe her to be a threat as you are *of* the Tau'ri."
"So are you saying this Goa'uld is a *friend* to the Tau'ri 'cause I remember the last time someone said that."
"No O'Neill I am not, I believe we should attempt to escape as soon as possible."
"Teal'c, is this the first time you have met this Goa'uld?" I asked.
"No, I have met her and her Jaffa in battle on two occasions."
"I thought that when the system lords did battle, they did it to the death."
"No, on one occasion she mated with Apophis, the child was Harsesis and destroyed herself at a young age. The second time they came to 'agree to disagree'" He said the last phrase oddly, as if he couldn't quite get his tongue around it. "They then separated their locations. Upon Apophis' death it appears she has not only absorbed his Jaffa, but I believe she has also claimed his territory as well."
"Is it just me or does Apophis seem to have a way with women?" Jack quickly sent an apologetic glance in Daniel's direction, but he didn't even seem to have noticed the reference in the first place.
"On many occasions Apophis attempted to create a host for his later use- he never succeeded." I thought about the young boy Shifu and wondered about the other children Apophis created and destroyed for his own purposes- children growing up with the express purpose of being empty vessels.
Our Goa'uld captor, whom had not graced us with her presence or been given a name, left us in the holding room for several hours while her Jaffa came in periodically to make sure we were all still present and accounted for.
"So this Goa'uld only likes people from Earth?" Jack asked.
"She believes them to be the only worthy hosts, and as I stated earlier the people of the Tau'ri do not pose a threat to her due to their lack of technological development."
"What about the transposed humans from Earth?"
"She claims to be the creator of all Tau'ri, on your planet or elsewhere."
"Teal'c, what is her name?"
"She calls herself Taweret."
"Of course!" Daniel's face brightened up like when we found the petrified Asgard on P1X-656. "Taweret was a household goddess- the goddess of childbirth and motherhood in Ancient Egypt, she was mother, creator, and protector of all. I've hypothesised for a long time that the term Tau'ri is associated with Taweret and this proves it!" He gesticulated excitedly, obviously forgetting in the wake of this scientific discovery that we were being held captive by this mother Goa'uld.
"Danny, any of this tell you how to get us out of here?"
"Um... no."
"Carter, let me guess- another escape proof room?"
"Yes Sir, and I don't think Dad's going to come help us out this time."
"Just as well. He'd probably get himself caught again and Jacob's a pessimist anyway." I smiled before the door was opened and after giving my irrational hope time to fall I was grabbed roughly by two Jaffa.
"Where we goin' guys?"
"Silence Tau'ri!"
"I just want to know our plans for the day."
"Your god Taweret wishes to see you."
"But I had an earlier appointment." Needless to say we were soon kneeling (by force) in front of the most 'unique' looking Goa'uld I'd ever seen.
"Uh Daniel?"
"Taweret is the hippopotamus goddess." He whispered quickly, as the woman was assisted into a standing position by 5 of her Jaffa. I guess I can see it now- you're impersonating a Goddess who is historically represented by a hippopotamus so you're going to want a host that... resembles one. In my experience all women who are Goa'uld hosts are young and quite beautiful. I hate to say it- but that middle-aged woman, while undoubtedly evil, was a very refreshing change.
"Shol'va, it has been long since we last met. I am gladdened to see that you have allied yourself with my people- the people of the Tau'ri." Already I could tell this speech was more for her followers than the four of us- she wasn't even looking at any of us as she spoke.
"Er if we're *your* people why don't ya let us go, huh?"
"You are well known amongst the Goa'uld, I wish to discuss your tactics in the defeat of Apophis."
"Apophis... well he was an accident really... I mean we've been successful in *killing* him on several occasions- but until recently he's never actually stayed dead."
"Then you are of no use to me." She looked up- nodding to her Jaffa. "Kill them!"
"Hey, hold on a minute... it's not our fault... and didn't you say we're *your* people?" Jack defended as a staff weapon was pressed to his neck. We'd all learnt to never be positive of anything- I knew how I felt about Jack and how much I wanted to see our daughter born... but other than that things were pretty much up in the air concerning life and death.
"It seems the people of the Tau'ri no longer have the right to be called Tau'ri. We will first rid ourself of you and then remove all life from you planet." I glanced between Teal'c and Daniel on each of my sides, then beyond Daniel to Jack, we all seemed to be in accord as to our only choice... It was a long shot but we had no other hope- we took off running.
I didn't think I'd ever been more glad to have a headache... of course the *second* time in one day running right into a wall is never *fun* but the person who was standing over me more than made up for that.
"Are you unwell O'Neill?"
"Thor buddy, have I ever told you you've got great timing?"
"You have on many occasions O'Neill... though I am still not clear on the meaning of that phrase."
"Where's Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c?" I asked, once my immediate relief had abated.
"The were sent to our infirmary- they each sustained minor Goa'uld staff weapon wounds... do not worry, they are being well cared for."
"I'd still like to see them, if ya don't mind Thor."
"Of course, please follow me, maybe it would be best if you also had yourself inspected." I didn't like the sound of that... but I'd never felt better about heading for any type of infirmary.
In the infirmary I found Teal'c rubbing his Jaffa emblem as he jumped off a diminutive, Asgard sized bed.
"O'Neill... you are well?" He asked, taking stock of the room around him and finally both of our eyes fell on Daniel and Sam lying on opposite sides of the room.
Thor wandered over to another Asgard in the room- I guessed their version of our Doc Frasier... My first instinct was to get to Carter and make sure she was okay, but I stopped to think- the recent bad blood between SG-1 giving me something to consider when making my decision of whom to check on first.
Thankfully the decision was taken out of my hands as Thor and his friend *motioned* for me to join them next to Carter.
"O'Neill has Major Carter been with child?" Okay- that I was so not expecting.
"Uh that depends on your definition of the word 'with'." I was glad Teal'c had decided to check Daniel on the other side of the massive room- after so many months of hiding, the whole conversation was making me uncomfortable. The two Asgard just stared at me anyway- so I of course took it upon myself to expound on human... stuff. "She was 'with child' several months ago, but do to... our jobs we transferred the baby to another woman."
"I was unaware the humans of Earth had the technology to successfully complete this procedure"
"The humans of Earth didn't do it, we made a new ally and they did it for us." Thor's buddy tilted his head as if to say 'huh?' but Carter (thankfully) saved me from having to explain further by groaning and moving her hand to rub her forehead like the rest of us.
"Jack... what's going on, Thor!" She looked over and saw our Asgard buddy. "I thought we were--"
"Dead, yeah." I looked at her, knowing there was something different about her, but unable to put my finger on it. "Thor showed up just in time." She sat up and flexed both of her arms experimentally- that was when we both seemed to realise at the same time that her purple cast was missing.
"Uh Thor?" I asked, getting the little grey guy's attention. "You *borrow* something from Carter?"
"The immobiliser is a human development- it is not important now... she is fixed."
"You mean you can heal fractures?" We both asked at the same time.
"Yes... human bones are very fragile... we often come across humans with immobilisers on- we fix them."
"Thor's buddy- they're casts if you wanna talk like a human."
"Thank you Colonel O'Neill."
"You're welcome... just trying to make sure you've got your facts straight."
"How're Daniel and Teal'c?" Sam asked, before grabbing my shoulder to help her down from the small table.
"They look all right... Thor ya mind if we go check our team?"
"Of course not O'Neill... but I believe Sharcon wishes to question you and Major Carter further."
"Yeah... but first I've gotta check my team." We joined the others who just happened to still be moping over their aching heads. "What is it about these spaceship walls huh?" I sat down next to Daniel.
"We'd better stop getting beamed from ship to ship or I'm never gonna be able to translate... anything ever again." Daniel slammed himself back against the wall of the ship for added effect. "Ouch!"
"Danny if it were me... and thankfully it's not... I wouldn't do that." It was the first real moment we'd had together since SG-1 had miraculously come back together, and it was oddly comforting.
"Colonel O'Neill... we must continue our discussion now." It was Sharcon- I knew the two of us weren't going to get along very well. "Doctor Jackson, Teal'c- Thor is awaiting you on the bridge." And with that my friends were escorted out of the room.
"Jack, what discussion are we here to continue?" Sam asked, as Sharcon left us while he went and checked... something.
"They know you were pregnant, I was explaining the procedure to them when you woke up, they seemed oddly curious about it."
"If they're the Roswell greys everyone's always talking about then they've gotta know at least a little something about human reproduction."
"Major Carter is correct, we are quite expert at human reproduction, we are only uncertain of whom you allowed to perform the transfer of your child. "
"These great people from the planet we assume *you* rescued us from."
"You are referring to the Asgard protected planet Balteria Major?"
"Yes, that's the place."
"That planet has been abandoned."
"Yeah we know that, we'd really like your help in locating the former inhabitants though."
"The Goa'uld have made that an impossibility- the Asgard fleet can not spare any other ships to assist in the battle."
"So you're saying after all the times we've helped you, you can't just help us locate one *big* group of people?"
"You do know these people have our child right?" Sam asked, trying to get me to calm down a bit before I strangled the smug Asgard in front of me.
"We had assumed... and Major Carter- we have removed all traces that you have been with child, the Goa'uld would use that against your people if they found out."
"Thank you." I heard Sam murmur behind me, before I heard the door open and noticed she'd left me alone with Cher.
"I guess I'd better go too, wouldn't want to miss whatever it is Thor is telling my team." I left Cher looking oddly at my back, and myself wondering why Sam left in such a hurry.
I found the rest of SG-1, Sam included, crowded around Thor and his little view screen thingy.
"Hey guys, what'd I miss?"
"Oh nothing Jack," Daniel stated as if he didn't even notice I wasn't there. "Thor's just been telling us how he came to be here."
"Thor?"
"We received notice of the Goa'uld's new policy on Tau'ri relations- and Balteria being a long standing protected planet we came to assist whomever may have been living on the planet."
"So you're not familiar with the Balteri?" Sam asked.
"We were unaware of anyone inhabiting the planet, but we hold no other titles over it than that it is a protected world."
"Really? We thought the Balteri had been on Balteria for quite a while."
"No." Was all Thor said before Sharcon joined the five of us.
"Commander Thor, I believe you should come see this." And with that we were left alone.
"Ya know these Asgard ships, when they're not being overrun with bugs, are pretty boring." I leaned against the wall opposite Sam and Teal'c. "But has anyone else noticed how clean these floors are? I mean Thor and his buddies don't wear shoes or clothes or anything at all... and yet this place is *so* clean." No one felt the need to comment on my comment... that's all right; I hadn't expected them to anyway.
"Jack, if the Asgard have never heard of the Balteri how are we supposed to find them?"
"I don't know," I answered Daniel's question from beside me. "You and Teal'c can go home, but I'm not going back with out my daughter."
"Jack, as we said before... both Teal'c and I are here for both you and Sam. As Sam said, we are SG-1 and SG-1 looks after its self."
"Thank you Daniel." Sam murmured, before leaning back against the wall.
"Seeing as how it's 0200 on Earth right now, I'm going to suggest we all try to get some sleep." My team must have been as tired as I was because no one objected, Teal'c crossed his legs and went into a deep state of Kel-no-reem while both Daniel and Sam tossed themselves on the super clean floor. I followed suit and soon I lapsed into oblivion.