Author: Jackie W.
Email:
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PART 2 - To bear with unbearable sorrow ...
When they arrived at their destination Sam helped to secure the area around the gate and assisted with the unloading of gear from the FRED. Once the group was ready to move out she turned, paused, and pulled something out of her pack, and then moved to the DHD and began to dial out. Instantly Dr. Lee questioned what she was doing.
"I'm not really needed here, Doctor, but there is another mission that requires my attention," she explained.
"I'm afraid we can't let you go Colonel," Major Harper told her raising his gun.
In response Sam simply raised her right hand encased in the ribbon device and activated the personal shield. "I'm afraid you don't have much choice," she told them as she finished dialing and the wormhole formed. "Don't bother following, I'll be planet hopping for the rest of the day."
And then she was gone.
Once the wormhole shutdown Dr. Lee and Major Harper exchanged a small smile before Harper walked over to the DHD and started dialing.
"Lee, get your team organized. I'm going to notify the SGC about this and then we will move out," the Major ordered. Then in a voice only loud enough for his team and Lee to hear he added. "God Speed Colonel."
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She hadn't lied about the planet hopping. Sam visited four other planets before she ended up on P3R-591, including two where she picked up some last minutes supplies left my SG2 and SG3 the day before. When she arrived at her new home away from home she was glad to find Teal'c and Ishta waiting for her.
Suddenly Sam was overwhelmed with the enormity of what she was doing and the stress of the last weeks missing Jack. She rushed into Teal'c's arms and let the strength of the man seep into her. After a few moments she backed away slightly embarrassed. It wasn't that she minded Teal'c seeing the moment of weakness, but she wasn't sure how Ishta would take it. She needn't have worried. The other woman calmly placed a hand on her arm in sympathy, and when Sam looked up into her eyes she saw only understanding. Nodding her thanks Sam took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders, and started to organize the supplies. With the help of the Jaffa couple her new base of operations was set up within hours.
They sat around the campfire that night and Sam outlined her plan. She would be going to Margile to spend time living amoungst the traders as one of them, trying to pick up any information she could.
"What are you going to trade, Colonel Carter?" Ishta inquired, causing Sam to smile for the first time in weeks.
"I found the perfect thing," she told them. "SG9 reported on the types of things being traded from off-world and I noticed that one of the most popular items were children's toys. The Margilese people buy them up quickly."
While she was speaking she had walked over to her stacks of supplies and opened a box. Now she held out the item for their approval. Teal'c, after initially raising his eyebrow in surprise was now sporting a grin matching her own. Ishta merely looked confused.
"It's called a yo-yo," Sam explained, and demonstrated the simple use of the toy. "Once you get good at it you can do tricks," she continued and to her friends' surprise she demonstrated several. "It's one of the General's favorites. Daniel and I were cleaning out his desk several weeks ago and found his. The instant I saw it I knew it was perfect. I went and bought several cases of them and SG13 managed to get them off-world for me."
"I believe this is a solid plan," Teal'c finally stated, and Sam breathed a sigh of relief.
They spent the rest of the evening arranging communications between Daniel, Teal'c and Sam, and catching up on what everyone had been up to in the past weeks. Teal'c nodded his approval when Sam announced that she had broken up with Pete before heading out.
"And you can stop calling me Colonel Carter, Teal'c. General Wilkins should have gotten my resignation by now. Or they've just declared me AWOL. Either way I'm sure I am no longer in the USAF," she sighed.
"The Tauri are losing a fine warrior, Samantha Carter," Teal'c acknowledged sadly. Then with a tilt of his head he added. "It will however make things much easier once you find General O'Neill."
Sam eyes opened wide and she blushed a deep red. After a minute though a small smile played at the corner of her lips.
"Yes it will."
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Back at the SGC General Wilkins looked like he was about to blow a gasket. The news that Lt. Colonel Carter had held SG5 and the scientists on her mission basically at gunpoint and then disappeared through the gate was swiftly followed by his aide handing him Carter's official resignation. Once it was obvious this was planned in advance he was sure she'd had help, but there was no evidence to be found to support his suspicions. He threatened and ordered, but not a single person cracked. Then to top it off he'd had to pick up the red phone and explain to the President that Earth's Stargate expert had taken off for planets unknown.
Well he knew where she was most likely headed. The only question was who to send after her that he could trust. Eventually he decided on Colonel Reynolds, and so it was that SG3 was sent back to Margile to search for Samantha Carter and bring her back to face charges of desertion and theft of USAF property.
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The first two days Sam spent peddling yo-yo's were a study in contrasts. During the day she was busy, and found the time talking to the vendors and demonstrating the toys to the children that would gather around enjoyable. At night she would buy herself a meager dinner and retreat to a small one-room apartment she had found. At that point, no matter how hard she tried to keep her mind on what she planned for the next day, her thoughts would always wander to the man she was trying to save.
His absence had left a huge hole in heart. One so big that she'd been forced to realize that she had no heart left to give to anyone or anything else. It had made breaking up with Pete, giving up the job she used to love and heading out to face the galaxy pretty much on her own an easy decision.
She needed Jack O'Neill at her side to make life worth living.
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SG3 had no intention of actually bringing Samantha Carter back to Earth, so Stan Reynolds was happy that his team was the one going yo find her. Especially since it wasn't hard to locate the ex-Colonel. Although she was barely recognizable, as soon as they had seen a child playing with a yo-yo it had been a simple matter to track down the trader that was selling them. When they did find her, set up in a stall in the busy market place doing a booming business, they were shocked not so much at her appearance (although it was radically different than the proper BDU clad officer they were used to), but by the man she was standing arguing with. Because just minutes before they had tracked her down, another ex-Colonel had followed the same trail of yo-yo's to her.
And now Samantha Carter had her hands full trying to get information from one Harry Maybourne.
Of course he was a lot more cooperative when he suddenly found himself standing in the shadows surrounded by four marines with guns.
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Sam couldn't believe her luck. When she'd come here two days ago she'd known that the SGC would probably think to send a team to try to find her, but she had disguised herself well. Still, to be on the safe side she had sought out one of the children that hung around the gate and given him a yo-yo to keep an eye out for anyone coming through wearing an SGC patch. Young Lars had run up to her early that morning and given her the news, and when prompted with the promise of two more free yo-yo's for his siblings he had pointed her to where SG3 had headed. Sam breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw what team had been sent.
Still she didn't approach them. Let Stan and his guys do some of there own legwork, she thought with a grin. She had kept an eye out for them all day. Maybe that was why the man who approached her just before sundown had been able to surprise her so.
"Well, well, well if it isn't the SGC's star astrophysicist. What in heaven's name are you doing out her in the middle of nowhere in that get-up," he asked.
"Colonel Maybourne! What rock did you climb out from under?" Sam asked.
"Ah ah, Major Carter, I asked first," the ex-Colonel chided.
"It's Colonel Carter. Or it was," she told him with a glare.
"Congratulations. Why was?" he asked.
"This isn't exactly an officially sanctioned mission," she sighed. And then proceeded to give him an update on the General's disappearance. "I don't suppose you know anything about that, do you Maybourne?" she suggested.
"No I don't," he told her. "I only stop by once every three to six months to pick up a shipment of their Purgoe," he explained. "Some of the people I deal with are addicted to the stuff and I use it for trading for other supplies."
"Purgoe? That nasty bitter ale?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. It's got quite a kick," he said with a laugh.
"Maybourne, I swear if I found out you had anything to do with the General's abduction, I'll hunt you down and take you apart limb by limb," Sam warned him.
"You and what army?" the ex-Colonel demanded.
And that was when the Marines showed up.
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The fact that Sam Carter actually had backup wasn't really that much of a surprise to Harry Maybourne. O'Neill was liked and respected, as was Carter and she was smart enough to know she would need help. He played on that intelligence now, telling her the whole truth and trusting her to work out that he could be of assistance.
Which she did. It was obvious Harry knew nothing about the General's abduction, but that he had sources that could come in handy. Deciding that she had no choice but to trust him, she took him up on his offer. It would turn out to be one of the luckiest things that she did over the course of her search. It would be one of Maybourne's more unsavory contacts that would give them a name that would suddenly put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
It would take Harry two days, and SG3 was due to leave when he tracked them all down with news. After catching his breath he told them he had learned of a ship that had been on Margile at the time the General had disappeared and that it was rumored that the pilot of the ship was a bounty hunter.
As soon as Sam heard the pilot's name she knew they had found the General's abductor and her heart dropped into her stomach at the implications.
The rogue pilot/bounty hunter was none other than Aris Boch.
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TBC