Chapter 5 - The Price
Jen Hailey and Teal'c travelled in an awkward silence for much of the journey after Daniel's departure. However, by the time they reached Sam and Jack's house on Mythor, they knew to put their immediate, somewhat confused feelings behind them and take in the hospitality on offer. In fact, it was easy to do, as the white-walled, red-roofed Mediterranean-style villa they entered was simply stunning, set on several levels on the side of a hill within a beautiful ornamental garden. "Sam's pride and joy." explained Jack. "The front garden's all her doing. I'm more of a 'rolling acres' kind of guy myself. As you'll see at the back."
As Sam and Jack walked through the gates, two brown-haired, blue-eyed boys - obviously theirs even from a distance - rushed up to greet them, unabashed by the strangers present. A red-haired, strikingly handsome woman stood in the doorway to the house with two more children, and Ari walked straight up to embrace her and his family. He introduced her as Karinne to the newcomers.
Jen remained polite and formal, but Teal'c lost more of his legendary reserve during the next two hours than ever before. He had previously only seen Jack and Sam as fighting colleagues on SG-1 and as hard-nosed traders during the last few days. The total contrast of their situation as parents brought to the surface emotions he normally kept well-hidden, the more so when Jacomb and Danil revealed how much they had been told about him by their parents. He was already a hero to them, and they monopolised his time before dinner with demands for explanations and stories about events and people he'd half-forgotten in many instances.
Sam and Jen engaged in a long conversation about the SGC and the states of different branches of science, while Jack was content to busy himself with serving drinks and finishing the dinner preparations started earlier by Karinne. By dusk, the boys had been despatched to bed, and Ari and his family retired to the guest house in the large rear gardens.
Dinner was a relaxed affair, the food and wine excellent, with conversation about serious matters deferred by unspoken agreement. Except, of course, the question that Jen had been dying to ask since they had cleaned up and changed into evening clothes after being shown their rooms. Fortunately Sam's clothes had fitted her quite well, whereas Jack's largest casual tunic could best be said to be a 'snug' fit on Teal'c.
"Why have you both got tattoos on your forearms?"
Sam extended her right arm so that Jen could see the fabulously intricate gold filigree patterns. As she looked closely, Hailey realised that they were not at all like coloured patterns drawn on the surface of the skin, but subcutaneous wire-like lines that had, over the years become an integral part of her forearm.
"It's an im'ri." Sam explained. "Jack has the only matching one in existence. They're neural nets produced in unique pairs here on Mythor for people who want to dedicate their lives to each other. When we're together, they extend our consciousness of each other, so that we can both sense and experience the other's feelings and moods." She raised and eyebrow briefly at her husband in response to the playful, unseen, somewhat carnal 'feeling' that he managed to conjure up.
"But how did they attach them?" asked Jen, more intrigued with this than anything she'd seen so far.
"During the marriage ceremony, there's a focussed beam of narrow- frequency..." Sam began, only to be interrupted by Jack.
"It's a secret of the Mythoran priesthood." he said quickly. "And no scientist is gonna strip away the mystique of one of the best things that ever happened to me!" He glared at Sam and she felt the redness of embarrassment rising. He continued "There's a beam of light that kind of welds it into your arm. It hurt like crazy for a few moments but that was all."
"So could you sense each other straight away?" asked Jen.
"No, it took weeks and months for the sensations to develop." said Sam. "It was difficult too, until we learned to expect and control the extremes of emotion that we felt, like when we were having a row, for instance. One of the worst times was when we both got beaten up and ended up in the SGC infirmary."
"And the best?" asked Jen hopefully.
"Giving birth!" said Sam.
"Saturday nights!" laughed Jack simultaneously, earning a mock glare from Sam.
"So, can anyone have them if they want?"
"I thought so at first." replied Sam. "What we didn't know is that the priests have psychics among them who conduct the marriage ceremonies where im'ri bonding has been requested. If they don't sense deep enough compatibility then they won't proceed with that part of the ceremony. We only discovered later that around 80 per cent of applicants are refused, either before the ceremony or during it. The process is irreversible, and if one partner dies then the other is unlikely ever to bond to someone else." She exchanged a brief soulful look with her husband, and immediately Jen knew that they must have discussed this very seriously in view of their age difference, but Sam continued with a smile. "And I wouldn't change a thing. It was the one of the best moments of my life too."
At that moment Teal'c glimpsed the true depth of their relationship, recalling the tension that had built up between them in their seven years in the SGC before Jack had left when he thought he'd lost her, causing Sam to realise what she'd done and starting her one-year campaign to get him back into her life. They'd never imagined the joys to come and the ways they so obviously filled each other's lives. The thought occurred to him that perhaps the im'ri enhancement had made little difference to the outcome, and that they would have been here together just the same, just as close. He observed O'Neill's thinning grey hair, and noted the deep lines etched in his weather-beaten face. He had gained weight as people of his age do, but was still supremely fit and muscular. Sam too had lost the slimmer features of her youth and her outdoor working life coupled with being the mother of two energetic boys, made for a more mature look. Neither she nor Jack seemed have an ounce of vanity about themselves.
"You have prospered as traders." said Teal'c. "Yet in my time, I have seen few people living in fine houses like this who are prepared to undertake arduous labour themselves."
"Hey, we only got lucky the last few years!" exclaimed Jack. "When Jacomb was born we just had a rented apartment above my first office here. I never figured I would sit around paying someone to let me get fat and lazy! And it took Sam's brains to get things moving in the right direction."
"Well, I wasn't the one who thought up the six-way barter deal that got us really going!" said Sam. "What was it now? You traded sand from a desert world to a planet that was sinking into salt bogs. Then sea water from the liquid planet and desalination equipment to the desert world. Er, yes, then welding technology from an industrial planet to the fishermen of the sea world so they could build better boats, and you organised the export of ozone in tanks from the electric-powered industrial world to another planet that had a deficient ozone layer. Followed by livestock from that world back to the industrial planet and manure to the desert world so they could grow better crops. I didn't have anything to do with that! I thought he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic when we didn't have any money to see for it during the first few months. But then they started paying our commission fees and we netted over half a billion librae within a year. We never looked back after that."
"Boy did we celebrate then!" laughed Jack. "And that's how Danil came to join his big brother. Talking of picnics, though, it was Sam's craving for bacon sandwiches when she was expecting him that brought us the trade in pigs. Sorry you two had to get so close and personal with them!"
"Hey, I loved it!" said Jen. "Brought back my time growing up on my folks' farm. Daniel's allergies came back with a vengeance, though."
"How did?...." Teal'c started to ask, but was cut off by Sam.
"When I was pregnant, I made sure I had packed lunches with me when we travelled through the gates." she explained. "I offered a bacon sandwich to a buyer on one world and he'd never tasted anything like it. Well, they say most vegetarians who give up do it because of the smell of grilled bacon. They didn't have pigs on that world, but they surely do now!"
Later, as Sam took her turn by clearing up, their guests sampled the local versions of brandy and coffee, served up by Jack. When Sam rejoined them, Jack knew that the time for pleasantries had passed.
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"Let's talk about what we've done and where we go from here." he said, looking at Teal'c and Jen in turn. Sam gently nodded her agreement.
"First, I am ashamed to admit that we have used Daniel's good nature against him and abused his friendship. He is right to be mighty angry about what he's seen us doing, and we're not proud of it. I hope that we'll straighten things out with him in due time, but if not, it's the price we and he will be paying for what we've done."
"I will be happy to assist in repairing that relationship." stated Teal'c. "I realised from the start that you were holding back many things from us for good reasons. Ari told me to be patient and I trusted him. He is a good friend to you, O'Neill."
"When did Ari tell you that?" asked Jen, surprised and a little upset to find that Teal'c had concealed this information.
"Never mind that now." Jack continued. "The point is, we deliberately set out to acquire or steal a number of religious icons and works of art from different sects for no other reason than to sell them to the Goa'uld. You and Daniel have just been treated to a stage show demonstrating that these were the real McCoy. The Goa'uld treasure these items because they can use them to exert influence over the former owners. You can bet your life that they'll store them in really secure places back on the home worlds of the various Lords."
"But why?" asked Jen. "Everybody will think you've abandoned all ties to Earth."
"That's what we want them to believe." said Sam. "You can tell your CO that we won't be stopping sending them the Intel or the technology. But we won't allow ourselves to be put in a position again where we can be betrayed by a Goa'uld spy on Earth or even some NID moron who doesn't happen to like the shape of our noses."
"But have you not given the Goa'uld a powerful hold over our allies and neutral peoples with these icons?" observed Teal'c.
"In the short term, yes." Jack admitted. "But my resident genius has developed a little surprise for them that hopefully will bite 'em in their asses before they even know it's happening."
All eyes were upon Sam, and she glanced briefly at Jack for reassurance before continuing. "Trojan horses." she said. "Beware of Mythorans bearing gifts! Do you remember the time dilation device that the Asgard used to trap the Replicators on that world?"
"What, the ten to the fourth power temporal slowdown device? I read your report." said Hailey. "The ten hours elapsed time on their world that's been twelve years in our space-time?"
"That's the one." replied Sam. "Well, I got another one from the Asgard two years ago to see whether I could adapt it for other uses. I discovered that I could miniaturise it and operate on just a trickle of power if I changed it to gradually increase the time gradient instead of just switching it on full in one go."
"Aaagh!" sighed Jen, seeing the implications straight away. "So you implanted one in that icon you've just sold to the Goa'uld. And they won't notice any differences at first, but the planet it's on will gradually become more and more out of step with the rest of the Universe until it's too late! And if they don't know where the device is hidden, they'll stay living at a snail's pace! Brilliant!"
"Who says there's just one?" observed Jack, a wry smile on his face. "We've been doing this for a while now. Noticed any particular System Lords failing to make the same impact they once did?"
"I have heard of a few such." replied Teal'c. "A most ingenious weapon, Samantha."
"And you expect Daniel to make a real fuss in public about the loss of the icons and the impact on their owners to convince the remaining Goa'uld to continue acquiring them!" said Jen excitedly. "Wow!"
"Daniel has a kind heart and a deep moral sense of right and wrong." said Sam. "Believe me, if we could have thought of another way, we would have done it. I'm not sure he'll ever forgive us, and he'd be right not to."
"But there's one thing more, Major." said Jack, surprising Jen by reverting to formal address. "Whoever was selected by the SGC to accompany Daniel on this mission to find us would have been contacted by someone from the NID. That someone would have made it very clear to you that we were not to be trusted, and that we were probably acting like agents who'd 'gone native' and were out of their control. Am I right?"
Jen seem transfixed by the stare he was giving her. She merely nodded in response.
"Jen, it's not that we don't trust you individually, but I guess you've had it made clear to you that your future career depends in no small way on giving that person detailed information about us and our operations." said Sam. Seeing Hailey nod again, she continued, "We'd be grateful if you didn't mention our home here on Mythor. It's the only place where the boys are truly safe."
"I promise." she replied earnestly.
"And if it looks like they're going to make a move against us anyway," said Jack, "then please would you remind them that we have space freighters with the radar cross-section of a sparrow and a plentiful supply of works of art. Comprende?"
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It gave Sam and Jack no particular pleasure to learn of Daniel's success in making the theft and sale or religious artefacts a subject for public debate and outrage on several worlds over the next few months. But their surreptitious trade continued and the Goa'uld behaved exactly as expected, their greed and lust for power driving their acquisitive instincts. Eight more Goa'uld strongholds were starting their unseen and unfelt deceleration from the rest of the Universe.
They were working in their office on Gryphon when Teal'c arrived unannounced. He lost no time in giving them the unwelcome news.
"DanielJackson has gathered some followers and mounted a raid on a Goa'uld world to recover the Avorian icon." he said. "I have not told him of your activities. I fear that even if he remains free, he will do untold damage by removing the time device from the planet should he eventually succeed, however many years in our future that should be."
"Shit!" hissed Sam, glancing at her husband. "We didn't think of that one."
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Jen Hailey and Teal'c travelled in an awkward silence for much of the journey after Daniel's departure. However, by the time they reached Sam and Jack's house on Mythor, they knew to put their immediate, somewhat confused feelings behind them and take in the hospitality on offer. In fact, it was easy to do, as the white-walled, red-roofed Mediterranean-style villa they entered was simply stunning, set on several levels on the side of a hill within a beautiful ornamental garden. "Sam's pride and joy." explained Jack. "The front garden's all her doing. I'm more of a 'rolling acres' kind of guy myself. As you'll see at the back."
As Sam and Jack walked through the gates, two brown-haired, blue-eyed boys - obviously theirs even from a distance - rushed up to greet them, unabashed by the strangers present. A red-haired, strikingly handsome woman stood in the doorway to the house with two more children, and Ari walked straight up to embrace her and his family. He introduced her as Karinne to the newcomers.
Jen remained polite and formal, but Teal'c lost more of his legendary reserve during the next two hours than ever before. He had previously only seen Jack and Sam as fighting colleagues on SG-1 and as hard-nosed traders during the last few days. The total contrast of their situation as parents brought to the surface emotions he normally kept well-hidden, the more so when Jacomb and Danil revealed how much they had been told about him by their parents. He was already a hero to them, and they monopolised his time before dinner with demands for explanations and stories about events and people he'd half-forgotten in many instances.
Sam and Jen engaged in a long conversation about the SGC and the states of different branches of science, while Jack was content to busy himself with serving drinks and finishing the dinner preparations started earlier by Karinne. By dusk, the boys had been despatched to bed, and Ari and his family retired to the guest house in the large rear gardens.
Dinner was a relaxed affair, the food and wine excellent, with conversation about serious matters deferred by unspoken agreement. Except, of course, the question that Jen had been dying to ask since they had cleaned up and changed into evening clothes after being shown their rooms. Fortunately Sam's clothes had fitted her quite well, whereas Jack's largest casual tunic could best be said to be a 'snug' fit on Teal'c.
"Why have you both got tattoos on your forearms?"
Sam extended her right arm so that Jen could see the fabulously intricate gold filigree patterns. As she looked closely, Hailey realised that they were not at all like coloured patterns drawn on the surface of the skin, but subcutaneous wire-like lines that had, over the years become an integral part of her forearm.
"It's an im'ri." Sam explained. "Jack has the only matching one in existence. They're neural nets produced in unique pairs here on Mythor for people who want to dedicate their lives to each other. When we're together, they extend our consciousness of each other, so that we can both sense and experience the other's feelings and moods." She raised and eyebrow briefly at her husband in response to the playful, unseen, somewhat carnal 'feeling' that he managed to conjure up.
"But how did they attach them?" asked Jen, more intrigued with this than anything she'd seen so far.
"During the marriage ceremony, there's a focussed beam of narrow- frequency..." Sam began, only to be interrupted by Jack.
"It's a secret of the Mythoran priesthood." he said quickly. "And no scientist is gonna strip away the mystique of one of the best things that ever happened to me!" He glared at Sam and she felt the redness of embarrassment rising. He continued "There's a beam of light that kind of welds it into your arm. It hurt like crazy for a few moments but that was all."
"So could you sense each other straight away?" asked Jen.
"No, it took weeks and months for the sensations to develop." said Sam. "It was difficult too, until we learned to expect and control the extremes of emotion that we felt, like when we were having a row, for instance. One of the worst times was when we both got beaten up and ended up in the SGC infirmary."
"And the best?" asked Jen hopefully.
"Giving birth!" said Sam.
"Saturday nights!" laughed Jack simultaneously, earning a mock glare from Sam.
"So, can anyone have them if they want?"
"I thought so at first." replied Sam. "What we didn't know is that the priests have psychics among them who conduct the marriage ceremonies where im'ri bonding has been requested. If they don't sense deep enough compatibility then they won't proceed with that part of the ceremony. We only discovered later that around 80 per cent of applicants are refused, either before the ceremony or during it. The process is irreversible, and if one partner dies then the other is unlikely ever to bond to someone else." She exchanged a brief soulful look with her husband, and immediately Jen knew that they must have discussed this very seriously in view of their age difference, but Sam continued with a smile. "And I wouldn't change a thing. It was the one of the best moments of my life too."
At that moment Teal'c glimpsed the true depth of their relationship, recalling the tension that had built up between them in their seven years in the SGC before Jack had left when he thought he'd lost her, causing Sam to realise what she'd done and starting her one-year campaign to get him back into her life. They'd never imagined the joys to come and the ways they so obviously filled each other's lives. The thought occurred to him that perhaps the im'ri enhancement had made little difference to the outcome, and that they would have been here together just the same, just as close. He observed O'Neill's thinning grey hair, and noted the deep lines etched in his weather-beaten face. He had gained weight as people of his age do, but was still supremely fit and muscular. Sam too had lost the slimmer features of her youth and her outdoor working life coupled with being the mother of two energetic boys, made for a more mature look. Neither she nor Jack seemed have an ounce of vanity about themselves.
"You have prospered as traders." said Teal'c. "Yet in my time, I have seen few people living in fine houses like this who are prepared to undertake arduous labour themselves."
"Hey, we only got lucky the last few years!" exclaimed Jack. "When Jacomb was born we just had a rented apartment above my first office here. I never figured I would sit around paying someone to let me get fat and lazy! And it took Sam's brains to get things moving in the right direction."
"Well, I wasn't the one who thought up the six-way barter deal that got us really going!" said Sam. "What was it now? You traded sand from a desert world to a planet that was sinking into salt bogs. Then sea water from the liquid planet and desalination equipment to the desert world. Er, yes, then welding technology from an industrial planet to the fishermen of the sea world so they could build better boats, and you organised the export of ozone in tanks from the electric-powered industrial world to another planet that had a deficient ozone layer. Followed by livestock from that world back to the industrial planet and manure to the desert world so they could grow better crops. I didn't have anything to do with that! I thought he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic when we didn't have any money to see for it during the first few months. But then they started paying our commission fees and we netted over half a billion librae within a year. We never looked back after that."
"Boy did we celebrate then!" laughed Jack. "And that's how Danil came to join his big brother. Talking of picnics, though, it was Sam's craving for bacon sandwiches when she was expecting him that brought us the trade in pigs. Sorry you two had to get so close and personal with them!"
"Hey, I loved it!" said Jen. "Brought back my time growing up on my folks' farm. Daniel's allergies came back with a vengeance, though."
"How did?...." Teal'c started to ask, but was cut off by Sam.
"When I was pregnant, I made sure I had packed lunches with me when we travelled through the gates." she explained. "I offered a bacon sandwich to a buyer on one world and he'd never tasted anything like it. Well, they say most vegetarians who give up do it because of the smell of grilled bacon. They didn't have pigs on that world, but they surely do now!"
Later, as Sam took her turn by clearing up, their guests sampled the local versions of brandy and coffee, served up by Jack. When Sam rejoined them, Jack knew that the time for pleasantries had passed.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Let's talk about what we've done and where we go from here." he said, looking at Teal'c and Jen in turn. Sam gently nodded her agreement.
"First, I am ashamed to admit that we have used Daniel's good nature against him and abused his friendship. He is right to be mighty angry about what he's seen us doing, and we're not proud of it. I hope that we'll straighten things out with him in due time, but if not, it's the price we and he will be paying for what we've done."
"I will be happy to assist in repairing that relationship." stated Teal'c. "I realised from the start that you were holding back many things from us for good reasons. Ari told me to be patient and I trusted him. He is a good friend to you, O'Neill."
"When did Ari tell you that?" asked Jen, surprised and a little upset to find that Teal'c had concealed this information.
"Never mind that now." Jack continued. "The point is, we deliberately set out to acquire or steal a number of religious icons and works of art from different sects for no other reason than to sell them to the Goa'uld. You and Daniel have just been treated to a stage show demonstrating that these were the real McCoy. The Goa'uld treasure these items because they can use them to exert influence over the former owners. You can bet your life that they'll store them in really secure places back on the home worlds of the various Lords."
"But why?" asked Jen. "Everybody will think you've abandoned all ties to Earth."
"That's what we want them to believe." said Sam. "You can tell your CO that we won't be stopping sending them the Intel or the technology. But we won't allow ourselves to be put in a position again where we can be betrayed by a Goa'uld spy on Earth or even some NID moron who doesn't happen to like the shape of our noses."
"But have you not given the Goa'uld a powerful hold over our allies and neutral peoples with these icons?" observed Teal'c.
"In the short term, yes." Jack admitted. "But my resident genius has developed a little surprise for them that hopefully will bite 'em in their asses before they even know it's happening."
All eyes were upon Sam, and she glanced briefly at Jack for reassurance before continuing. "Trojan horses." she said. "Beware of Mythorans bearing gifts! Do you remember the time dilation device that the Asgard used to trap the Replicators on that world?"
"What, the ten to the fourth power temporal slowdown device? I read your report." said Hailey. "The ten hours elapsed time on their world that's been twelve years in our space-time?"
"That's the one." replied Sam. "Well, I got another one from the Asgard two years ago to see whether I could adapt it for other uses. I discovered that I could miniaturise it and operate on just a trickle of power if I changed it to gradually increase the time gradient instead of just switching it on full in one go."
"Aaagh!" sighed Jen, seeing the implications straight away. "So you implanted one in that icon you've just sold to the Goa'uld. And they won't notice any differences at first, but the planet it's on will gradually become more and more out of step with the rest of the Universe until it's too late! And if they don't know where the device is hidden, they'll stay living at a snail's pace! Brilliant!"
"Who says there's just one?" observed Jack, a wry smile on his face. "We've been doing this for a while now. Noticed any particular System Lords failing to make the same impact they once did?"
"I have heard of a few such." replied Teal'c. "A most ingenious weapon, Samantha."
"And you expect Daniel to make a real fuss in public about the loss of the icons and the impact on their owners to convince the remaining Goa'uld to continue acquiring them!" said Jen excitedly. "Wow!"
"Daniel has a kind heart and a deep moral sense of right and wrong." said Sam. "Believe me, if we could have thought of another way, we would have done it. I'm not sure he'll ever forgive us, and he'd be right not to."
"But there's one thing more, Major." said Jack, surprising Jen by reverting to formal address. "Whoever was selected by the SGC to accompany Daniel on this mission to find us would have been contacted by someone from the NID. That someone would have made it very clear to you that we were not to be trusted, and that we were probably acting like agents who'd 'gone native' and were out of their control. Am I right?"
Jen seem transfixed by the stare he was giving her. She merely nodded in response.
"Jen, it's not that we don't trust you individually, but I guess you've had it made clear to you that your future career depends in no small way on giving that person detailed information about us and our operations." said Sam. Seeing Hailey nod again, she continued, "We'd be grateful if you didn't mention our home here on Mythor. It's the only place where the boys are truly safe."
"I promise." she replied earnestly.
"And if it looks like they're going to make a move against us anyway," said Jack, "then please would you remind them that we have space freighters with the radar cross-section of a sparrow and a plentiful supply of works of art. Comprende?"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
It gave Sam and Jack no particular pleasure to learn of Daniel's success in making the theft and sale or religious artefacts a subject for public debate and outrage on several worlds over the next few months. But their surreptitious trade continued and the Goa'uld behaved exactly as expected, their greed and lust for power driving their acquisitive instincts. Eight more Goa'uld strongholds were starting their unseen and unfelt deceleration from the rest of the Universe.
They were working in their office on Gryphon when Teal'c arrived unannounced. He lost no time in giving them the unwelcome news.
"DanielJackson has gathered some followers and mounted a raid on a Goa'uld world to recover the Avorian icon." he said. "I have not told him of your activities. I fear that even if he remains free, he will do untold damage by removing the time device from the planet should he eventually succeed, however many years in our future that should be."
"Shit!" hissed Sam, glancing at her husband. "We didn't think of that one."
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