Author's Note: Special guest star, Dr. Samantha Carter

Content Warning: Violence and Mild language

The Fox Hunt



****Planet Hades (September 1, 2025)****

Robin opened the tunnel and walked down as she did near the beginning of every month. She turned on what little lighting there was and walked through the thin walkway until she arrived at the large opening at the end. The largest in the entire base. Not many ventured down here regularly other than her. Both her and her husband had made a promise after this room was set aside, to visit it in this fashion, so that if no one else did, they would remember. Now, she had to do it alone. Like she had ever since she placed it, she visited the memorial in the front that read, Adam Joseph Michaels. And like she had every month for the last year and a half, she cried uncontrollable tears.

The constant heat of the planet made it impossible for flowers to last more than a few hours, but before he died, Adam had decided that each and every one of the memorials here needed to be honored. Having been told the stories of Knights and heroes of the Middle Ages, he choose to personally forge a sword and engrave the name of the lost 'warrior', as he called them, and bury it up to half the blade length behind each stone. As one of the rituals that she and Adam had preformed each month was the shining and sharpening of the blades. "If these are to mean anything, they must reflect the character of those passed on. Shining beacons and sharp warriors," she would remember him saying. After Adam died, Paris had taken up the task of helping her with the large task, but this time, Paris would not be able to help her. Pulling out the tools she had brought along, she knew she had to be much quicker than normal. She had several more swords to add to this room later that day.

****************

There wasn't a person on the base not dealing with some kind of loss and each was handling it in their own way.

No one had seen much of Robin in the last few days, but that was to be expected. She usually disappeared around this time each month and would always reemerge renewed and even stonger in resolve.

Corra meanwhile spent the days mostly in reflection over losing two more of his extended family. He was only one of four left and he didn't know where Sarah and Christine were. As for Stewart, he didn't know where to start. He didn't know how to deal with his own grief, let alone Stewart's. Most everyone was too busy to notice Stewart falling for Paris, but Corra noticed and even helped him get up the nerve to talk to her before the mission. The way things were now, he almost wished he hadn't.

Sam buried herself in work, decrypting the data on the crystal they had obtained from Beta-1 before the explosion. So far she had discovered quite a bit of information that shed some light on who the Maldorians were and from where they came, but nothing of the nature that would help them even the odds.

"Anything yet?" Sharp asked, coming up behind her.

She shook her head, not looking away from the screen, "not a whole lot. So far all I've been able to pull up is some history on them."

He was a little curious, "like what?"

"Well not much of a different story from the other human civilizations we've encountered. The Goa'uld took some humans as slaves from earth and colonelized the planet. Apparently after a while, they no longer saw it as important and just left. The humans were forced to fend for themselves."

"But how did they get so advanced?" he was dying to know. "I mean, to be able to take on the Asguard, the SGC, the Goa'uld and who knows what else."

Sam turned to face him, "well I wasn't done, Glenn. You see this is where the story gets interesting. The planet they were sent to was on the edge of known territory to the system lords. Apparently another alien race that they had never heard of, visited the planet and took it for their own, reenslaving the people. They called themselves Maldorians."

"Wait, I'm confused," Sharp inturrupted. "Kelsar and his group are called the Maldorians, but they're not alien."

"Well that's where they got the name," she explained. "You see after a while, a plague broke out among the alien population. Before they knew what was happening it had spread to their homeworld and all their colonies, but it didn't affect the humans. They subjected them to numerous grusome medical experimentation and tests, but they never did find out why they were immune. The Maldorians, the real ones, eventually died out."

"And the slaves took all of their technology and a galatic size grudge against the universe," Sharp concluded.

She nodded in agreement, "they were outraged that races such as the Asguard did nothing to help them. According to their military 'philosophy' which amounts to a lot of anti-alien propaganda, they are quote 'morally and evolutionary superior and are officially at war with every known race.' And from some of the things they say about earth, that includes humans."

"What do they say?"

"Oh just we're a unevoled lesser species that is too weak to have the right to exist."

"Yeah... ok... that would explain a few things. Like massive psychotic behavior." Sam gave him a crooked smile and nodded. Then Glenn changed the subject. "So all this took place in twenty years?" Sharp had to ask.

"That's what I don't get," she responded, shaking her head. "As near as I can tell, the Maldorians died off at least two hundred years ago. Now granted it probably took them some time to learn how to use their technology, but there aren't any plans for the invasion of any planets until a little over twenty-five years ago."

"Well that doesn't make any sense. What could they have been waiting for?" he wondered.

"Well if I find anything out, you'll be the first to know, Glenn," she responded.

Sharp softened his voice, "anything about Riley?"

Sam shook her head, "no, I'm sorry."

He dropped his eyes in disappointment. Just then, a young man walked into the room, "she's ready, Captain, Doctor."

"Thank you," Sam replied. "Come on, Glenn," she said taking his hand as a mother would a child. He got up and followed her down into the tunnel.

***************

Sam and Sharp were the last ones to arrive but most people cleared the way to let them up toward the front. Robin stood facing them, behind a table with several swords lined up side by side, each with the name of one of those who had died in the past week. "We have gathered to honor the memories of those who gave their lives to protect our right to survive," she began. "To make sure these names are never forgotten, we place these memorials here in this hallowed place and mark each of them with these sharpened blades as a symbol of their warrior spirit." Robin paused for a moment and then explained what would happen next, "as I call each name, anyone who would like to say a few words may do so." Robin picked up the first sword, "David Justin Rupe." Several of David's friends stepped forward, mostly talking about the things they would miss most about him and at his courage to have volunteered for the dangerous mission that took his life. Once she was sure no one else would step forward, she picked up the second sword, "Aaron Christopher Piatt." Again, several people spoke of bravery by Aaron, but this time, unlike David, several of those people had to console a grieving widow, left behind by the young man. A few more minutes of silence before Robin called the third name, "Paul Alan Grissom."

Most of the people there did not have much of an opportunity to get to know Grissom and some were very resentful of how he left Robin and her team high and dry to save himself. The same raised a lot of controversy about whether or not he should even be included in the ceremony. It was at Sharp's insistance that he was included. Despite his flaws, he had fought along side Glenn and his team bravely. Sharp stepped forward to say a few words, "I know most of you didn't get to know Paul. He was the type of person who tried to keep to himself and I can relate to that quite a bit. That didn't make him a bad person. He shouldn't be remembered as a man who made a mistake in the last few minutes of his life, but as a man who was human and lived his life the best he could. He saved my life more than once and I know that Luke can say the same. He belongs here." With that, Glenn stepped back and allowed Corra to say a few words that echoed Sharp's.

Once he was finished, Robin picked up the next sword, "Johnathan Michael Davenport."

Sharp again stepped forward. "The thing I'll most remember about John was the fact that you just couldn't get the guy down. Something bad would happen and he's find a silver lining to it. That's how he lived and how he died. I have no doubt that if he'd be able to make the decision to sacrifice his life for Paris he'd have done it in a heartbeat. He was one of the best guys I've known and I'll miss him a lot." He stepped back, wanting to say more but knowing he'd never make it through it all. Immediately after Sharp ended, Corra said a few things about knowing John from childhood and what that meant to him.

Finally, Robin, with tears in her eyes, picked up the last sword, "Johnathan William Tainn." Robin waited for some of the others to speak before she began. "John became the one who tempered my strong will after Adam died. That's why I made him my second-in-command. He may not have always had the leadership skills involved or the know how to run a base, but he had those intangibles that I lacked. And he was a good man. A kind man. I remember when mom and I used to visit Aunt Chris and Paris. He used to always play chess with us when mom was busy. Even though he knew he could never beat us. We sit there, two little girls who could beat a grown man at an adult's game." The tear were really flowing now. "He was like a father to me." It was obvious she had more, but she couldn't continue. Sharp stepped up to hold her and Sam took the sword from her hand drove it into the ground behind his memorial.

With the ceremony completed, Corra, Sam and the rest filed out of the room solemly, leaving Robin and Sharp standing alone.

"I'm sure Paris and Stewart would have wanted to be here," Sam commented.

Corra looked up and managed to catch enough of what Sam said to respond, "Well Paris can barely eat on her own, let alone be moved all the way down here and you know how smitten Chris is. If we didn't drag him to his bed every night, he'd never sleep. Never mind the fact that after a while he made us give him a bed in the infirmary so he could sleep near her."

Sam let out a muffled laugh, "he does have it bad doesn't he?"

"Dr. Carter, Chris doesn't just have it bad, he has the absolutely worst case I've ever seen. I'm just glad Paris is gonna be ok. I don't think Chris could have taken it if she hadn't."

Sam and Corra tried their best to the put the day's sorrowful moments behind them as they continued to discuss the budding relationship between Paris and Stewart.

****************

Robin and Sharp, meanwhile, stood holding each other, trying to fill the empty places that been opened in them. "So many people gone, Glenn," she said just staring out.

"I know, Mac," Sharp replied softly.

"I know what we're doing is necessary, but I'm just tired of all losing all my friends. My mother is gone, I never knew my real father, Chrislyn's gone, we almost lost Paris, and now my foster father is gone."

Sharp tilted her head up toward his, "Robin, I know how hard it is to lose people and I can tell you you'll feel it for the rest of your life, but your life has to go on. You have a mission and these people gave their lives for that mission and before it's over more people will do the same, but the thing that has to remain alive is the fight to end all this. As long as we do that, then all of this means something." Sharp stopped there. He was beginning to sound like a sappy movie, but when he looked at Robin, he could see it had helped a little. He saw a little spark return to her eyes and he could have swore that he was looking right back at Riley. He managed to hold back his own tears of loss.

"You're right, Glenn," she finally said. And then within a few seconds, it was as if nothing bad had happened at all. Robin gave Sharp a firm hug and then turned to leave, pausing for a second, waiting for him to follow. "You coming?"

"In a second," he nodded. "Go ahead without me." She frowned a bit but then exited as he asked. Sharp walked over to one of the memorials and read the name. Riley Revelin Fox. The flood of memories washed over him. He smiled remembering when they first met and how completely oblivious they were to everything else around them. And he remembered the nights he spent trying to help her through the pain and guilt of her brother's drowning. He had admitted on one occasion that he cared for her, but not that he was in love with her. Then he cried, as he thought about all the missed opportunities he had to admit his feelings. The day they finally admitted their feeling for each other, reawoke in him a part of his spirit he thought long dead. But only days later all that was taken away from him and finally after all these months, he could feel it breathing its lasts breaths once again. It lived only to inspire him to make sure that he could make the people who took her from him pay for what they did. He lightly kissed the tips of his fingers and ran them across the engraved letters. "I miss you," was he could think to say.

He then stood and turned to leave, just as one other memorial caught his eye. The name triggered his memory back their mission on the Ra. He hadn't told anyone anything about how he was captured. The main reason being that he wasn't really sure himself. He remember vividly the face he thought he saw, but it just wasn't possible. He had to have been wrong. Chris and the others had buried Harris and they wouldn't have lied to him about it if they hadn't. Or would they? But even if they hadn't, that still didn't explain how he could be alive. Sure the Goa'uld had technology to revive the dead, but why come back to revive a guy like Harris. Sharp didn't believe him to be a traitor, but even if he was he was useless to the Maldorians. He couldn't rejoin Sharp and his team and he didn't really have any useful information. Sharp just couldn't make it add up to a logical conclusion. He thought about telling Sam or Robin about it, but good would that do? No, this was unimportant right now. There were more pressing concerns, such as finding out everything on that data crystal. He shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind and left.

****Planet Hades (September 13, 2025)****

Sam moved as fast as her fifty year old legs could carry her and practically knocked over a young man who was just turning a corner. "Sorry about that," she said as she helped him off the floor and then dashed off again, looking for Robin and Sharp. The excitement inside of her was showing through every part of her body and she found it hard to keep it to herself, but she knew she should inform the base commander and let her decide who should know. As for Sharp, he had just as much a right to know as Robin, seeing as how she was actually a part of his team and not officially part of the base staff. She dodged around a few more people before finally making it to where Robin usually was, the war room. Unfortunatley for Sam, this was one of the few times she wasn't there. Sharp, however, was and she couldn't keep this to yourself anymore. "Glenn! Can I talk to you for a minute?" she said a little too excited.

"Uhhhh, yeah... sure," he responded somewhat unsure. Then Sam motioned to a empty room just off the main war room and Sharp got really confused. Following her inside, he finally had to satisfy his curiosity. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

Sam closed the door behind him which earned her an even further look of confusion. She decided she better not delay any longer and handed over the folder containing the reason for the excitment. "Take a look," she said.

Sharp opened the folder and looked over the contents. He first glanced over a few photos of what looked like the next generation of the X303. Then he noticed a couple of pages of text and began reading. After a few moments, he looked up at Sam, "I'm not sure I follow, Sam."

"Well don't you see?" she asked and it was then obvious he didn't. She took one of the pictures and began explaining, "This is the TFC Victory. According to what I decoded, she was spotted by a Maldorian destroyer, coming to dock with Space Station 14 in orbit of planet Hera. Now that was a supply station, so we can probably assume they were there to resupply." Sharp nodded agreement and Sam cotinued, "the Victory immediately set an intercept course to protect the colony, but as you know, our ships weapons were not match for Maldorian shields."

"So the ship and colony were destroyed, how is this good news?" Sharp questioned.

"But that's just it, Glenn," she shook her head. "The last transmission the destroyer sent said they had suffered massive damage and were abandoning ship. They requested reinforcments to finish the job."

"Wait a minute..." he interrupted. "You're saying the Victory was able to take out a Maldorian destroyer without an Argos laser?"

Sam nodded, "Exactly. Unfortunately it looks like they didn't get out unscathed. The destroyer also said they had caused enough damage to take out their hyperspeed engines and their life support."

"Which means?"

"Well it means that since they weren't there when those reinforcment arrived, that they used conventional drives to leave the area. Now let's assume for the moment that they set down to make repairs somewhere, if we can find out where, there may be some clue as to where they went after making those repairs. And where's the first place you would go if your plane were badly damaged and needed to be resupplied?"

Sharp smiled, "I would head back to the nearest friendly base." Then he thought about the odds of them finding anything useful, "I don't know, Sam. That seems like an awful long shot."

"Well do you have something better, Glenn?" she asked him frankly.

"No, no I don't" he shook his head. "Let's run it by, Mac and see what she thinks."

Sam smiled now, "my thoughts exactly."

"Run what by me?" Robin asked as she entered the room.

Sam snatched the folder from Glenn's hand excitedly and handed it to Robin. "Take a look at this." Robin looked over the folder and her look steadily turned from curious to concerned and then to visably upset. Sam and Glenn suddenly became concerned as well but Sam was the first to say something, "is there something wrong, Mac?"

Quickly composing herself, she looked up at Sam and responded, "nothing. So what did you want to ask me about?"

Sharp and Sam exchanged looks and decided they would ask about it later. Sam then explained to Robin what she had just finished explaining to Sharp. "Glenn and I think it's worth a shot. What do you think?" she finally asked.

"I agree," she nodded, "which is why I'm going with you."

A little startled by that, Sam replied, "well I didn't mean you had to come. I just thought, you know you'd assign us a few people and we'd go hunting."

"And I decided I'm going, now you can either accept that and come along or I'll pick someone else, Sam."

"I don't have a problem with it," she quickly stated to settle things down. "Do you, Glenn?"

"No problem at all," he agreed.

"Ok then. Get five teams ready, we leave for the most likely worlds in two days." And with that, Robin dropped the folder and exited the room, leaving Sharp and Sam completely speechless.

****Planet Hades (September 15, 2025)****

Robin had been avoiding Sharp all week and he wasn't sure if it was intentional or just coincidence. Either way, he needed to talk to her. Something about their mission today had upset her and that worried him. Right about then, Robin emerged from the war room and started to get everyone's attention. "You've all been assigned to one of five teams. Your objective is to look for evidence of where this ship, the TFC Victory, landed to make repairs. Once you have done that or have throughly searched your planet and found nothing, return here. Once we have located the right planet, we will send in a team of experts to try and determine the Victory's course from that planet. Are there any questions?" The room was silent. "Very well then. Team Alpha will depart once we reach the gate. Teams Beta through Epsilion will depart one at a time, in five minute intervals to their destinations. Dismissed."

Sharp moved forward to grab her before she got away. Robin, however, saw him coming, "Not now, Glenn."

"Then when?" he almost demanded.

"Later. When I'm ready," she said in a warning tone.

Sharp decided not to back down, "and when will that be, Mac?"

"When I say I'm ready!" she told him, daring him to continue. Sharp was about to accept the challenge when he thought better of it and let her go. They were both on Team Alpha with Sam and there would be time for this later.

****************

The trip to the gate had passed in uneventful silence. The five, three-man teams assembled and readied their gear. They didn't expect the Maldorians on any of the planets they would be searching but you could never be too careful. Sharp watched as Robin dialed and then as the gate opened, he walked up the steps with Sam beside him. Robin joined them a few seconds later and they stepped through.

****Destination Planet #13 (September 30, 2025)****

Sam was leading Sharp and Robin by at least five hundred feet, scanning for any traces of a ship ever having landed. Team Gamma had returned five days ago with a promising lead, but it turned out to be the remnants of another ship lost in a battle sometime before the Victory. Everyone else had come up completely empty so far. This was Alpha's second planet search and so far it didn't look promising. Sharp meanwhile, had yet to get Robin to open up to him.

"You getting thirsty?" he asked her. The desert sun had been beating on them for hours now and all of them were quite parched. This was a good a way as any to try and start up a conversation. Robin, who was like her mother in almost every way, just shook her head. "You sure?" he pushed.

"I'm fine," she said flatly.

Well if that didn't sound like Riley, he didn't know what did. "You know you need to keep your fluids up out in this sun."

"I told you I am fine," she said trying to move ahead of him.

Sharp kept pace, however, and placed the canteen right in her path, "drink some. Now!"

Robin snatched the canteen and definately slung it over her shoulder, "did you annoy my mother like this too?"

"When she wouldn't talk to me? Yes, yes I did," he replied. "Now look, something is wrong and it won't get better if you just bottle it up."

"It's none of your business, Captain," she said bluntly. "Just because you knew my mother doesn't mean that you can act like my father."

"I'm not trying to act like your father, Mac," he said defensively. "I'm trying to be a friend."

"Well I don't need you to be either right now. I'm perfectly fine." If Sharp hadn't known better, he could have swore he was dealing with Riley in one of her stubborn moods. She had the looks, the one word vocabulary of 'Fine' and the walk away all down pat. She was definately her mother's daughter. Luckily for both of them, Sam cut them short.

"Glenn, Mac, I think I've got something!" she shouted back.

Sharp and Robin both jumped at the distraction from their current conversation. They walked up to see what Sam had found. Sam was just picking up the piece of debris lying in the sand as they came up next to her. "What do you think?" Sam asked them.

"You tell me, Sam," Glenn responded. "All of this stuff was built while I was gone."

Robin was about to comment as well when she noticed something reflecting the sunlight right into her eyes. She started walking toward it, slowly at first and then picked up the pace. Before long she had reached what had cause the distraction. She quickly began digging around the seemingly endless metal object. Sam and Sharp, just a little concerned at what they saw, ran after her. "Something up, Mac?"

Robin looked up at them, "hand me that piece." She took it from Sam before she could actually hand it to her. Placing it against the large buried metalic object. They bore a striking resemblance and all three looked at each other with curious and hopeful looks.

****Destination Planet #13, Victory excavation site (October 24, 2025)****

The excavation of the Victory was going well enough that they had uncovered a hatch into one of the main halls in less than a month. It had been decided that Robin, Glenn and Sam would be the first ones on board to look around. Almost immediatly, Robin headed to the main computer and tried to restore power.

"You certainly know your way around, Mac," Sharp noticed.

"I should, it's my mom's ship," she finally admited.

Sam and Sharp exchanged looks of 'so that's what it was'. Sam decided to go check on the primary systems while Sharp moved over to try and give Robin a hand. "So that's what you were being so secretive about?"

"I told you it was nothing you needed to worry about," she said, eyes still on the console. Despite years of being slowly buried under the sand, the console quickly chirped to life and minimal power was restored. She then immediatly started through the ships files.

"Pull up the Catain's logs, Mac," Sharp told her, unsure if that's what she was doing or not. "Let's see what happened to cause them to abandon their ship like this."

Robin continued what she was doing. "Later," was all she said. Sharp stepped over and cancelled her search through the files. Robin turned, furious at him, "what the hell do you think you're doing??!!"

"Mac, I want to know just as much as you do about what happened to Riley, but we have to have priorities," he told her. "At the moment, those priorities have to be what happened to this ship and her crew. ALL of her crew."

Robin just glared at him for a few minutes before letting out a deep huff, "fine, you do it yourself then." With that, Robin stormed off to another part of the ship.

Sharp felt bad for her. Partly because he sympathized with her over Riley. He wanted to know just as badly about what had become of her, but most of it was the fact that she had spent so much of her life without her parents. Robin had opened up to him about how all Riley had told her about what happened to her father was that he died in the initial Maldorian attack on Argos. What Robin couldn't understand was why her mother was so secretive about her father's identity. Did it have to do with her being ashamed of having been with him? Perhaps he had rejected her when she became pregnant. But at the same time, when she spoke of him, she always spoke highly and there were several times she would hear her mother crying in a seperate room she always kept locked. One day she broke into that room to find several medals and uniforms that obviously belonged to a male officer. Sharp was determined to make it up to her. When he first started out on this quest, he set his final destination as Argos to discover what had happened to that first colony and maybe find a way to prevent it. Now he had a better reason. He was going to help Robin come to terms with her parent's fates and do everything he could to ease that pain.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he began a search on the official Captain's log and began looking through the last few entries.

****************

Robin carefully stepped into the musty quarters. She turned on the lights and what she saw immediately brought tears to her eyes. The walls were lined with pictures of Robin as a child, in her volleyball uniform, with her dolls, and just about every other picture a mother could treasure. Walking over to the bed, she picked up a teddy bear that was lying on the floor near the bed. Attached to it was a ribbon holding on an envelope with the name "Mac" on it. She undid the ribbon and open the envelope to reveal a birthday card inside. The tears were now streaming down her face, so much so that when she opened the card, her eyes were too blurred to read it. It didn't matter to her though what it said. All it was now was a reminder of a love taken from her when she needed it most. She tossed the card aside and craddled the bear in her arms as she rocked back and forth. Until now she had been able to deny it, but there was no denying it now. Her mother was gone for good.

****(Several hours later)****

Captain's Log, June 25, 2019.

We've been traveling on conventional drives now for over a week, but our engineers say that unless we stop for repairs soon, we'll ruin those drives and be left adrift. We've located a desert style planet we're hoping will provide us cover from Maldorian scanners due to high magnetic fields in the rock faces. Unfortunately, with half the crew dead or injured, repairs will be slow. Our only defenses remain the handful of gliders that survived the battle with the destroyer but without Colonel Fox to lead them, I doubt they would even be much of a distraction. Crew morale is low everyone is tired from pulling double and triple shifts, but if we don't get back to a friendly base soon, I doubt we'll make it back at all.

Captian Chun-yu Ming, TFC Victory.

****************

Sharp tried to load the last few files, but they seemed to be damaged. He started a restoration of the files, but that could take several hours if it worked at all. Until then, he had listened to all that he could listen as far as the final logs of Captain Ming. He decided to pull up a directory of the some of the other files that might shed some light on the last days of the Victory. He stopped when he ran across what looked to be video files of the battle itself. As he looked over what each filed contained, he froze on one in particular. Most likely the file for which Robin had been looking. The video logs from Riley's glider. It wouldn't be right, Sharp decided, to watch them without her, but he wasn't sure she really wanted to see him at the moment. That question was quickly answered as he heard a voice behind him.

"You weren't gonna watch that without me, were you?"

He turned to see Robin coming up behind him. "No, of course not. I uh... I just thought you might still be upset about what happened earler."

"I was, but not anymore," she admitted. "You were right. Our first responsibilty is trying to salvage the ship and a part of that is finding out what happened to it."

"Still, you had a right to be upset," he offered.

"What do you say we just put it behind us and watch this together?" she asked.

Sharp nodded his head and loaded the file. Both of them swallowed hard, scared both of what they were going to see and of what they might feel. At the same time, however, neither could avert their eyes from the screen as file began.

****TFC Victory, Somewhere in the Apollo System (June 7, 2019)****

"The time is six am, Earth Standard Time. Rise and shine, Riley."

Riley really hated that computer. It has no concept of sleepless nights and bad mornings. Only cold hard facts. Like that it was time to get up and face the day. She decided to see if it would change its mind.

"The time is six o' five am, Earth Standard Time. Rise and shine, Riley."

Damn.

****To Be Continued in "Fox Tales"****