Chapter 14 - We Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wait
'I know that he knows that I'm hiding something.' was the repeating thought in Sam's mind as she stood to attention in General Hammond's office. "Sir, Yes Sir!" she said in the most formal drill response that the forces used. "I have no excuse for getting the date wrong and being late back on duty, Sir. You have my word that it won't happen again."
"Just see that it doesn't, Major." responded Hammond, staring at her. "You may be someone that the SGC would find very hard to replace, but that doesn't mean I will show favouritism or leniency. It's bad for morale and general discipline and as a senior officer you should know that. I consider it appropriate that this will appear as a reprimand in your record. You are dismissed!"
Sam hesitated before saluting. She knew that she had to play this out properly if her comrades were to maximise their chances of staying free when they arrived on Earth. "Sir, permission to speak, Sir!"
"Well, what is it, Major Carter?" asked Hammond, his patience running a little thin. He had enough on his plate without one of his most trusted officers acting up.
"Has there been any news of Colonel O'Neill, Captain Hailey or Lieutenant Grogan while I was away, Sir?" she stated in a firm voice, still standing to attention.
Hammond eyed her sharply, as though he were looking for a sign that she was doing anything other than asking after comrades that she was concerned about, in the proper military sense of course. He hesitated a while before speaking, but eventually decided that her request was genuine. "We have received a formal protest from the Andans concerning their escape from the planet." he stated, continuing to examine her expression.
Sam hoped like crazy that she was making the appropriate facial expressions at his news. She opened her mouth slightly and stared hard at him, as though waiting for more.
"After a shooting incident at their Stargate involving Hailey and Grogan, during which several of their security force members were injured - two quite severely, we're told - an unknown space vessel used a ring transporter to lift Colonel O'Neill and Hailey off. Grogan was captured and was being taken back to the mainland when the ship he was on was attacked by the spacecraft. From the description it sounded like a Goa'uld Tel'tak. Captain Hailey and another person took Grogan away while those on board were incapacitated by the attack." Again he stared at her. "You wouldn't care to speculate who was on board that Tel'tak, would you, Major?"
Sam knew that lying outright was more likely to be her downfall than merely avoiding the obvious pitfalls. She also began to think that perhaps Hammond was giving her some subtle assistance in the way he phrased his questions. Others would not be so inclined to give her the option. She limited her reply to "No Sir."
The General paused, and so Sam continued, "Do we know where they are now, Sir?"
"I'm afraid not, Major." he replied in a calmer voice. "But the Andan Ambassador has lodged a formal complaint with the President and has demanded the return of all three to stand trial for their hostile actions. Previously they were only demanding the Colonel's return. And frankly, the heat from Washington is most definitely *on*. This trade deal is of great importance to Earth, and I regret to tell you that we may well have to arrest all three of them if and when they return."
"But Sir! No-one's heard their reports yet." Sam exclaimed. "Is the Government going to take the other side's word at face value?"
Hammond's expression became one of slight suspicion again. "I thought you were all for this trade pact, Major. You convinced us originally that the technology we're getting in exchange for standard issue weapons and some other goods is of enormous benefit. Has your position changed on that?"
'Think quickly, Sam!' she said to herself, but again decided to keep her response to the minimum. "No Sir! But I am concerned for my comrades. They must have been on the run for six months on Andar. It's given me time to realise that perhaps we don't know as much as we should about the people we're dealing with."
"That's as may be." he replied, but in a much less confrontational manner. "But as I said, this deal *is* going to go ahead. I will not allow our people to be used as pawns in this situation, but there are some very powerful players on our side that may take it out of my hands. Just pray that it doesn't get to that. Now if that's all, Major, as I said before, you are dismissed."
"Yes Sir! Thank you Sir!" Sam said sharply, saluting this time. The General responded and she about-faced and marched smartly from the room.
Hammond watched her go and thought for a moment. Then he reached for the red telephone and asked to speak to his Commander-in-Chief.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"I'm not surprised that this planet's almost deserted." sighed Jeff Grogan, glad to be back in their makeshift shelter again. "Three days we've been here, and that's two and fifteen-sixteenths days too much. Are you sure we can't get going now, Jen?"
"No!" Hailey responded firmly and with a huge sigh, not for the first time. "Eighty hours was the plan, and that comes around tomorrow. Look, Jeff, I've had my fill of gale-to-hurricane force winds as well, but all you've got to put up with besides that is the 'rotten eggs' smell. That trace of mercaptans in the atmosphere is playing hell with the burns on my hands and you can see the state of Jack's chest wounds. You don't hear him complaining, do you?"
Grogan looked away, somewhat shame-faced. "No, I guess not." he said quietly before looking her in the eye. "But do you know what? I can hardly smell the rotten eggs any more. Just imagine how popular we'll be when we get back to the SGC! It'll take days to wash it out of our skin and hair."
"Where is Jack anyway?" asked Jen, unable to see past the small opening to their moss-covered brushwood shelter tucked away in the tree line. Although they were camped only a few hundred metres from the Stargate, their shelter was well-hidden. Not that it needed to be, as precisely no-one had disturbed them in their vigil.
Jen had made three dry-runs at getting into the innards of the Dial Home Device and connecting her jury-rigged sub-space Multiplier to the appropriate terminals before taking it out again and restoring everything to normal. They couldn't leave it in place for some innocent to come by and trigger its effects onto an unsuspecting planet. No, this had to be all accomplished at the right time, just as she and Major Carter had planned in those last frantic hours aboard Jacob's Tel'tak.
"He found a sheltered spot to do some fishing by that big pond back there." said Jeff. "I don't know why, though. In this atmosphere, the water is like dilute sulphuric acid and he's got no chance of catching anything. Funny, he said it reminded him of home."
"It's going to be strange going back to formal military ranks." Jen mused. "I kind of got used to thinking of him as just 'Jack'. I wonder if he'll be any different towards us?"
"Not in public." Jeff responded. "He'll still bawl me out for being, what was it he said way back? 'A bipedal bull's-eye in a Goa'uld shooting gallery.' Boy, did I feel a klutz!"
"Don't underestimate where you stand with him now." Jen responded. "You've changed just from being with him." She contemplated something in private for a while. "So have I. He hasn't put a foot wrong in all the time we've been in his charge. Except for being slow on the uptake with his Major, of course."
"What? Did I miss something?" asked Jeff, his interest aroused. "When did it happen? I was surprised when she turned up to get us like that, without the SGC knowing. I didn't notice anything going on between them."
"No, they got so good at hiding it that they fooled each other eventually." said Jen. "I think she only realised that throwing herself at that cop last year was a bad move while we were on Andar. And Jack worried me at the start of our time on the run. I'd been on a couple of missions with him in charge after he gave up being head of SG-1 and he was strange. Still the professional soldier, but with no spark of enthusiasm for anything other than the job in hand. Sort of empty. But I could see that as soon as we became his responsibility on Andar, he was like the old Colonel O'Neill again."
"Less of the 'old', Captain." came Jack's familiar voice as he entered the shelter. But he was smiling at her, and she laughed. They squashed up to make space for him to sit down.
"Slight change of plan." he said. "Dial 'em up now, Jen, and throw the warning note through. In six hours, give or take, we're going home."
"Yes, Sir!" she cried eagerly, scrambling to get up. "But why now? We were supposed to wait a while longer."
"Because Major Carter may be a genius," Jack replied, "but she's a real ham actor. I want her to actually look and act surprised when the Gate activates early and hopefully, we come strolling through."
Jen disappeared with the carefully prepared note wrapped around a handy- sized rock and minutes later, they heard the sound of a wormhole forming even over the constant howl of the winds. She reappeared shortly afterwards sporting a big grin.
"What's so funny?" asked Jeff.
"Well, if my calculations of angles and trajectories were correct, hopefully I broke the guardhouse window." she explained, her expression refusing to fade away.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Unscheduled off-world activation!" came the familiar yet always exhilarating warning, accompanied by the raucous blare of the klaxons. Sam wasn't far from the control room and was one of the first to arrive.
But her mind was in turmoil. 'Who the hell's this? It can't be them, ten hours too early! Unless something's gone wrong! Please, please, not now...'
"No signal, Sir!" cried Sergeant Davies as General Hammond entered the room. He noticed Sam rapidly scanning several monitor screens full of data. "Threat analysis, Major?"
"Well, sir, we're not aware of any heightened threats against us at present. It might be a genuinely peaceful contact." They all suddenly looked up as a loud noise was heard as something or if they were unlucky, *someone* impacted the iris from within the wormhole and finished their existence as a brief energy peak, their demise recorded only by an oscilloscope. "Sir, then we should trace the origin and send through a MALP. It might be our missing officers."
Her pleading expression was enough for Hammond. "Very well. Sergeant, find the origin of the incoming signal and have a MALP prepared."
An hour later, three untidy figures emerged onto the ramp, two walking proudly and the third with a pronounced limp. In an unmilitary show of delight, a voice at the rear shouted "It's them! It's the Colonel!" followed by cheers and whistles. People ran forward to the ramp to meet their missed comrades. However, the enthusiasm of those at the front of the impromptu welcoming committee suddenly abated as they got near the three heroes. Noses were pinched as their faces wrinkled up and they turned away, revolted by the stench.
One figure however forced its way through the crowd and rushing forward came face-to-face with Jack, intent on whispering the words she had been rehearsing for the last two days. But the chemically-driven odour that assaulted her senses the moment she came near brought forth the unrehearsed endearment that he would tease her about for years to come.
"Holy shit, Sir!" cried Sam. "What have you trodden in?"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
'I know that he knows that I'm hiding something.' was the repeating thought in Sam's mind as she stood to attention in General Hammond's office. "Sir, Yes Sir!" she said in the most formal drill response that the forces used. "I have no excuse for getting the date wrong and being late back on duty, Sir. You have my word that it won't happen again."
"Just see that it doesn't, Major." responded Hammond, staring at her. "You may be someone that the SGC would find very hard to replace, but that doesn't mean I will show favouritism or leniency. It's bad for morale and general discipline and as a senior officer you should know that. I consider it appropriate that this will appear as a reprimand in your record. You are dismissed!"
Sam hesitated before saluting. She knew that she had to play this out properly if her comrades were to maximise their chances of staying free when they arrived on Earth. "Sir, permission to speak, Sir!"
"Well, what is it, Major Carter?" asked Hammond, his patience running a little thin. He had enough on his plate without one of his most trusted officers acting up.
"Has there been any news of Colonel O'Neill, Captain Hailey or Lieutenant Grogan while I was away, Sir?" she stated in a firm voice, still standing to attention.
Hammond eyed her sharply, as though he were looking for a sign that she was doing anything other than asking after comrades that she was concerned about, in the proper military sense of course. He hesitated a while before speaking, but eventually decided that her request was genuine. "We have received a formal protest from the Andans concerning their escape from the planet." he stated, continuing to examine her expression.
Sam hoped like crazy that she was making the appropriate facial expressions at his news. She opened her mouth slightly and stared hard at him, as though waiting for more.
"After a shooting incident at their Stargate involving Hailey and Grogan, during which several of their security force members were injured - two quite severely, we're told - an unknown space vessel used a ring transporter to lift Colonel O'Neill and Hailey off. Grogan was captured and was being taken back to the mainland when the ship he was on was attacked by the spacecraft. From the description it sounded like a Goa'uld Tel'tak. Captain Hailey and another person took Grogan away while those on board were incapacitated by the attack." Again he stared at her. "You wouldn't care to speculate who was on board that Tel'tak, would you, Major?"
Sam knew that lying outright was more likely to be her downfall than merely avoiding the obvious pitfalls. She also began to think that perhaps Hammond was giving her some subtle assistance in the way he phrased his questions. Others would not be so inclined to give her the option. She limited her reply to "No Sir."
The General paused, and so Sam continued, "Do we know where they are now, Sir?"
"I'm afraid not, Major." he replied in a calmer voice. "But the Andan Ambassador has lodged a formal complaint with the President and has demanded the return of all three to stand trial for their hostile actions. Previously they were only demanding the Colonel's return. And frankly, the heat from Washington is most definitely *on*. This trade deal is of great importance to Earth, and I regret to tell you that we may well have to arrest all three of them if and when they return."
"But Sir! No-one's heard their reports yet." Sam exclaimed. "Is the Government going to take the other side's word at face value?"
Hammond's expression became one of slight suspicion again. "I thought you were all for this trade pact, Major. You convinced us originally that the technology we're getting in exchange for standard issue weapons and some other goods is of enormous benefit. Has your position changed on that?"
'Think quickly, Sam!' she said to herself, but again decided to keep her response to the minimum. "No Sir! But I am concerned for my comrades. They must have been on the run for six months on Andar. It's given me time to realise that perhaps we don't know as much as we should about the people we're dealing with."
"That's as may be." he replied, but in a much less confrontational manner. "But as I said, this deal *is* going to go ahead. I will not allow our people to be used as pawns in this situation, but there are some very powerful players on our side that may take it out of my hands. Just pray that it doesn't get to that. Now if that's all, Major, as I said before, you are dismissed."
"Yes Sir! Thank you Sir!" Sam said sharply, saluting this time. The General responded and she about-faced and marched smartly from the room.
Hammond watched her go and thought for a moment. Then he reached for the red telephone and asked to speak to his Commander-in-Chief.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"I'm not surprised that this planet's almost deserted." sighed Jeff Grogan, glad to be back in their makeshift shelter again. "Three days we've been here, and that's two and fifteen-sixteenths days too much. Are you sure we can't get going now, Jen?"
"No!" Hailey responded firmly and with a huge sigh, not for the first time. "Eighty hours was the plan, and that comes around tomorrow. Look, Jeff, I've had my fill of gale-to-hurricane force winds as well, but all you've got to put up with besides that is the 'rotten eggs' smell. That trace of mercaptans in the atmosphere is playing hell with the burns on my hands and you can see the state of Jack's chest wounds. You don't hear him complaining, do you?"
Grogan looked away, somewhat shame-faced. "No, I guess not." he said quietly before looking her in the eye. "But do you know what? I can hardly smell the rotten eggs any more. Just imagine how popular we'll be when we get back to the SGC! It'll take days to wash it out of our skin and hair."
"Where is Jack anyway?" asked Jen, unable to see past the small opening to their moss-covered brushwood shelter tucked away in the tree line. Although they were camped only a few hundred metres from the Stargate, their shelter was well-hidden. Not that it needed to be, as precisely no-one had disturbed them in their vigil.
Jen had made three dry-runs at getting into the innards of the Dial Home Device and connecting her jury-rigged sub-space Multiplier to the appropriate terminals before taking it out again and restoring everything to normal. They couldn't leave it in place for some innocent to come by and trigger its effects onto an unsuspecting planet. No, this had to be all accomplished at the right time, just as she and Major Carter had planned in those last frantic hours aboard Jacob's Tel'tak.
"He found a sheltered spot to do some fishing by that big pond back there." said Jeff. "I don't know why, though. In this atmosphere, the water is like dilute sulphuric acid and he's got no chance of catching anything. Funny, he said it reminded him of home."
"It's going to be strange going back to formal military ranks." Jen mused. "I kind of got used to thinking of him as just 'Jack'. I wonder if he'll be any different towards us?"
"Not in public." Jeff responded. "He'll still bawl me out for being, what was it he said way back? 'A bipedal bull's-eye in a Goa'uld shooting gallery.' Boy, did I feel a klutz!"
"Don't underestimate where you stand with him now." Jen responded. "You've changed just from being with him." She contemplated something in private for a while. "So have I. He hasn't put a foot wrong in all the time we've been in his charge. Except for being slow on the uptake with his Major, of course."
"What? Did I miss something?" asked Jeff, his interest aroused. "When did it happen? I was surprised when she turned up to get us like that, without the SGC knowing. I didn't notice anything going on between them."
"No, they got so good at hiding it that they fooled each other eventually." said Jen. "I think she only realised that throwing herself at that cop last year was a bad move while we were on Andar. And Jack worried me at the start of our time on the run. I'd been on a couple of missions with him in charge after he gave up being head of SG-1 and he was strange. Still the professional soldier, but with no spark of enthusiasm for anything other than the job in hand. Sort of empty. But I could see that as soon as we became his responsibility on Andar, he was like the old Colonel O'Neill again."
"Less of the 'old', Captain." came Jack's familiar voice as he entered the shelter. But he was smiling at her, and she laughed. They squashed up to make space for him to sit down.
"Slight change of plan." he said. "Dial 'em up now, Jen, and throw the warning note through. In six hours, give or take, we're going home."
"Yes, Sir!" she cried eagerly, scrambling to get up. "But why now? We were supposed to wait a while longer."
"Because Major Carter may be a genius," Jack replied, "but she's a real ham actor. I want her to actually look and act surprised when the Gate activates early and hopefully, we come strolling through."
Jen disappeared with the carefully prepared note wrapped around a handy- sized rock and minutes later, they heard the sound of a wormhole forming even over the constant howl of the winds. She reappeared shortly afterwards sporting a big grin.
"What's so funny?" asked Jeff.
"Well, if my calculations of angles and trajectories were correct, hopefully I broke the guardhouse window." she explained, her expression refusing to fade away.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Unscheduled off-world activation!" came the familiar yet always exhilarating warning, accompanied by the raucous blare of the klaxons. Sam wasn't far from the control room and was one of the first to arrive.
But her mind was in turmoil. 'Who the hell's this? It can't be them, ten hours too early! Unless something's gone wrong! Please, please, not now...'
"No signal, Sir!" cried Sergeant Davies as General Hammond entered the room. He noticed Sam rapidly scanning several monitor screens full of data. "Threat analysis, Major?"
"Well, sir, we're not aware of any heightened threats against us at present. It might be a genuinely peaceful contact." They all suddenly looked up as a loud noise was heard as something or if they were unlucky, *someone* impacted the iris from within the wormhole and finished their existence as a brief energy peak, their demise recorded only by an oscilloscope. "Sir, then we should trace the origin and send through a MALP. It might be our missing officers."
Her pleading expression was enough for Hammond. "Very well. Sergeant, find the origin of the incoming signal and have a MALP prepared."
An hour later, three untidy figures emerged onto the ramp, two walking proudly and the third with a pronounced limp. In an unmilitary show of delight, a voice at the rear shouted "It's them! It's the Colonel!" followed by cheers and whistles. People ran forward to the ramp to meet their missed comrades. However, the enthusiasm of those at the front of the impromptu welcoming committee suddenly abated as they got near the three heroes. Noses were pinched as their faces wrinkled up and they turned away, revolted by the stench.
One figure however forced its way through the crowd and rushing forward came face-to-face with Jack, intent on whispering the words she had been rehearsing for the last two days. But the chemically-driven odour that assaulted her senses the moment she came near brought forth the unrehearsed endearment that he would tease her about for years to come.
"Holy shit, Sir!" cried Sam. "What have you trodden in?"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
