Ch. 19: And They Say Blondes Are Dumb…

Daniel woke up to an empty bed. He slid out from under the covers, grabbed an extra blanket, and headed straight for the roof. As expected, he found Mytel watching the stars. "Why didn't you wake me?"

Mytel didn't look at him as he sat down next to her and wrapped a blanket around them both. "I figured at least one of us should get some sleep."

"This isn't your fault."

"We would not have been there were it not for me and my people."

"Mytel, look at me." Daniel waited until she finally turned her head. "Sam wanted to go on that mission. She wanted to meet Ando'rhet. The coordinates to that planet were already in our system. We would have ended up there eventually, and, if we had waited, SG-1 would have been alone and we could have all died."

The tears she had been fighting back all day finally welled up in Mytel's eyes. "Daniel, I know you are right, but I can not help but feel guilty."

Daniel wrapped his arms tightly around Mytel and pulled her close.

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Sam stood up and stretched. She'd been sitting with Ando'rhet for hours. First she'd had to explain how she found the Goa'uld, then she had to tell her about Earth. The Queen had done some explaining herself. Sam turned back to the woman. "Look, I appreciate your hospitality, but I need to return to Minara."

Ando'rhet was puzzled. "Why do you wish to return to my people?"

Sam was now pacing slowly across the room to stretch her legs. "We have a device that protects our Stargate. Everyone coming through has to transmit the right codes, or the people on my planet will close a covering over the entrance and the traveler dies. By now, my code won't work any more. There are people from my world on Minara. They can get me home."

Ando'rhet looked around, lowering her voice. "I had planned to return to Minara shortly as well. I have wasted far too many lives on Petbe."

Sam took the hint and lowered her voice as well. "Umm, no offense, but, how do you plan to get to the Stargate when Petbe is between you and it."

Ando'rhet smiled. "That I have had planned for a long time. I have learned that among my people, Petbe has inserted a spy. I will arrange for this spy to be told that we plan to move to the south and west, where we supposedly have ships waiting. Once the spy leaves the caves, my followers and I will move, under the cover of darkness, East, to the Stargate. We will travel to Minara. My loyal Jafa, Tulana, has volunteered to stay behind and destroy the Stargate's control device."

"That might not be necessary."

Ando'rhet raised her head slightly. "We must destroy the device so Petbe cannot use it to follow us. He has devised a way to get the Stargate to connect to the same planet after it has been used."

Sam sat back down. "Did your people recover my gear?"

Ando'rhet was puzzled. "Yes. Why?"

"I have an explosive in my gear. I can attach it to the control device and use a remote trigger to blow it a second after we go through."

Ando'rhet was obviously impressed. "I am impressed by your willingness to help one of my people. Most of the descendants of the Tau'ri I have encountered were either controlled by the Goa'uld, or they were less then eager to use their technologies to aid others."

"We've run into the same problems." Sam stood back up. "We have work to do."