As they packed up and then headed back towards their main campsite in the clearing near the 'Gate, he wondered to himself...
She gave me a lake!
How do I pay that back?
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Ch 18: KAMGREE
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He thought about it all of the way home and couldn't decide on anything appropriate. And once they reached their shelter, the rest of the daylight hours were busy as they they'd cleaned up, checked the 'Gate alarm, and the area around the 'Gate, and then rebuilt the fire and prepared dinner.
The simple meal was over again and he found his thoughts wandering back to what he could do or give her to show his thanks for what she'd known he'd appreciate and enjoy. Unfortunately, most of the things that he could think of were not available here... She loved riding her motorcycle, but they didn't have anything to build one with here. She loved flying planes... and that was as far out of reach as a motorcycle. She liked... playing with doohickeys... and they were on a planet that was decidedly doohickey-less!
He glanced over at her and she was tapping away intently on one of the laptops.
That familiar pang of guilt stabbed at him as he realized yet again that he'd stranded them on a planet that was much more along the lines of his idea of a fantasy than hers. If she'd been asked what planet she'd like to leave Earth for, she'd have probably chosen an inhabited world where the native people had a fairly advanced level of technology. Then, if they didn't have motorcycles, she could just show them how to build one.
Deciding to incite a little conversation, "So... Sam..," and he waited for her to stop typing and look up. "If you'd had a choice of planets to be stranded on with a non-working DHD... would you have chosen some place like that Fithial planet?" he asked.
She smiled and rolled her eyes, "Phyithilia," she corrected the name of the planet automatically.
"Yeah, that one," he agreed. "So would you have been happier stranded somewhere like that?"
"Have I been acting unhappy?" she asked with a surprised tone.
"Well, no, not really," he admitted and she now just looked puzzled. "But, there aren't a lot of doohickeys here, just a couple laptops and the alarm systems... and a trashed DHD," and he winced as he spoke those words. She looked down at her laptop and hit a few keys and then he heard the familiar sounds of the shut-down sequence. She then snapped the laptop closed and turned her attention back to him.
"Jack, I don't blame you fo-," she started but he quickly interjected,
"Yes, but you can't tell me that you wouldn't have been happier if we were somewhere more technologically advanced... at least with an indigenous people who were at least into the Bronze Age!"
"Actually, that would probably be terrible," she responded and seeing his surprise she elaborated, "A culture at or around the Bronze Age, if it was anything like Earth at that time, then they would probably see women as property and slaves and whores. So, I'll take a planet like ours here any day to one with a typical Bronze Age culture."
He heard her words and agreed with her statement, but when she'd said 'a planet like ours here', his brain had highlighted those words. The both of them were already starting to settle into their life here. And she hadn't even had a chance yet to see if she could jury-rig anything with the damaged DHD. The fact that she hadn't pushed very hard for them to take a least one full day to give it a once over... that told him a lot about her initial assessment of the damage.
"Yeah, you're right. We have visited a lot of planets that haven't figured out the whole equality issue yet," he agreed. Continuing on his original thread, "But what about Fythilia?" "Phyithilia," she automatically corrected with that small amused smile... just one of his goals. "Right, Flithlia," and he almost tied his tongue in a knot," but succeeded in making her chuckle. "I know that you enjoyed your SG-1 mission there six months ago – and don't even bother denying it!"
She'd opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of what she was going to say and decided to say nothing at this moment.
"I almost popped both main arteries to my brain, you know, when I found out what you were doing," he accused her with both eyebrows raised and she grimaced at bit.
"The Phyithilia spacecraft are very advanced, sir. And it was so unusual for an advanced culture to be willing to share... that I just... well... I figured that we should take advantage of their largess," and he noted that in her search for words she hadn't even noticed that the dreaded 'sir' had slipped out.
"Yeah, but Car-," but she caught that, "Sam," he corrected and quickly continued, "You flew through an asteroid belt at just below hyperspeed and then you flew through their sun...," and she hadn't known he was watching her flight from the Phyithilian command center. Of course, he hadn't known that he was going to be watching her flight either. He hadn't known that she was even flying.
- - - - - Flashback - - - - -
No... when Daniel and Teal'c had relayed back such positive initial findings from their latest planetary exploration – and they'd asked for an extension on their original mission length... he'd granted the extension and then decided to join his old team for a few days. Get out in the field. Stretch the legs. Meet an advanced society that was friendly for a change.
When he'd arrived at the 'Gate, some Phyithilian flunkees had run ahead to tell his team of his presence. Meeting him halfway to their main city, Daniel and Teal'c had informed him that Sam would not be joining them until later that afternoon as she was already committed to a day of touring the local spacecraft technology.
At the local High Minister's office they had been received with all of the respect due a high-level representative from another planet. After some initial pleasantries (of which Jack was learning to get good at), they had chatted for awhile about some of their planetary goals, how they used their Stargate, whether or not they knew of the Goa'uld (they did), what they thought of the Goa'uld (they hated them), etc.
After a very nice lunch of strange-looking, but tasteful food (Jack followed Daniel and Teal'c's suggestions), the High Minister offered a tour of their space command facilities. Jack, of course, jumped at the offer and was surprised when both Daniel and Teal'c immediately began offering alternatives. Both of them should have known better, however, because no ancient temple or ruins would ever take top billing with Jack O'Neill when there were spacecraft to be seen!
So there they'd been. In the Phyithilian Space Command Center. The High Minister had asked the head of the facility to lead their tour... he couldn't remember the woman's name. Yep, they had a woman as the head of their Space Command Center. Probably another reason that Carter had seemed fit in with the Phyithilians so quickly. Not remembering her name, he just decided to call her the Commander (at least in his head).
Errr... so where was he... oh, yeah, So there they'd been. Checking out the Space Command Center. Watching the arrival and take-off of the numerous ships. Listening to the chatter between the ground controllers and the pilots. And then he'd heard:
"Colonel Carter, if you would honor me with a little Kamgree?" came an unknown voice over the speaker. Jack was staring at Daniel and Teal'c for answers. Daniel managed to look a little embarrassed and gave him a barely noticeable shrug.
"Well, first you have to tell me what it is," her voice came over the speaker next.
"Kamgree is... when I fly and you follow... and I will try to make the flight path both interesting and challenging," the unknown pilot answered.
"Oh... KAMgree," and she said it like she'd just forgotten what the word was, "I was afraid that you'd said Kimtree... and that is not something we should be doing up here," she responded chuckling. Jack just looked dumbfounded. What was Kimtree? He looked at Daniel for an explanation and received a two-shouldered shrug in response. He'd never heard of Kimtree either. Jack looked over at Teal'c and the Jaffa simply cocked his head a little at O'Neill's unspoken question.
She was speaking again, "Kamgree it is then! I'm game. I'll Kam your Gree," she sent.
And now Jack moved over to Daniel and whispered, "Is she drunk?"
"She wasn't when she left," he whispered back. "But we haven't seen her since early this morning," he appended.
And apparently the owner of the unknown voice was puzzled too, "I am sorry, Colonel Carter, I did not understand your last statement."
"Sorry," she sent back, "Let's go ahead and Kamgree – I'll just follow your lead."
And off they'd gone. Jetting across and around the Phyithilian solar system and beyond. The three men of SG-1 silently watched the visual displays which tracked the ships' paths around the known planetary bodies and obstacles in their charted space.
"Your Colonel Carter is a most accomplished pilot, General O'Neill," the Commander of the Space Center complimented. "This morning she flew as Major Frathilin's copilot. I was most surprised when he proclaimed that your Colonel Carter had become proficient enough to handle a ship on her own so quickly."
"Yes, yes she is an excellent pilot," he responded politely and then continued to wait and worry although Carter apparently handled the alien craft with dexterity and ease. Carter was now Greeing while Major Frathilian was Kamming, and he winced internally at the ease with which he followed and applied Carter's earlier play on their language. He hoped that he didn't say it out loud.
After their little game of Follow the Leader, Jack figured that they'd return to base. But he was wrong. Carter wanted to test some of the limits of the ship. He wanted to wring her neck. Of course he realized, she had been in charge of this mission and it was her prerogative to decide when things were too dangerous, but he still wanted to get her out of that alien ship and back on the ground as soon as possible. He knew that he'd feel a lot more comfortable with their alien technology once he'd had a chance to fly in one of their ships and handle the controls himself. Like Carter had. And was. And was apparently feeling pretty comfortable with.
So, now Carter and this Major Frathie-guy, were testing the turn radius, how fast the plane accelerated and decelerated, then they were jinking and juking around asteroids... and they were now talking about flying through the sun's corona! No, no... they weren't talking about that anymore... they were doing it! He closed his eyes for a moment at the frustration of not being able to do anything but stand and watch the displays. A few moments of silence passed and there was no communication from either Carter's ship or the Major's.
"Woohoo!" her jubilant voice leaped out of the speaker. "That was fantastic!" And then she was off a mile-a-minute technobabbling about what they'd just done.
When the 'air-chatter' between the two pilots finally died down a bit, he realized that they were now heading back to the base. He debated about asking for permission to say 'Hi and hurry home," or some such, but the sheer euphoria and delight in her voice stilled his hand... he hadn't heard her that excited and charged up since the first year or so of Gate travel.
- - - - - End Flashback - - - - -
"We weren't anywhere close to hyperspeed in the asteroid belt, sir. Major Frathilian was extremely considerate and careful. And we only flew through the sun's corona – and that's nothing new... we did it with my Dad in that Goa'uld mothership after we were blown across the universe when we exploded Vorash's sun...," she pointed out. He noticed the 'sir' again. It was so easy for them to fall back into their habits.
He gazed into her eyes, remembering the jubilation that he'd heard in her voice after she'd come out of the sun. She was looking at him quizzically, now. "I...uh... I just don't remember hearing you so happy in a long time," he admitted softly.
Embarrassed a bit at the attention on her emotional display, she blushed a little, "I found the Phyithilian flight controls to be so intuitive that I got a bit carried away," she confessed.
"Sam, you were having fun, and that's OK," he chided her with bemusement. "Now, if you'd gone and gotten yourself killed, then the whole fly-the-alien-ship-around-the-galaxy-thing would have been colossally stupid," he kidded her and she looked down at the ground.
"So... you like naquadah reactors, blowing up sun's, flying alien ships semi-hazardously and riding motorcycles... which brings me back to my original question," he summarized, "Would you have been happier stranded on a planet such as Phyithilian?"
"That's not a fair question, Jack," she said as she stood up from the fire, "Each planet has its own plusses and minuses," she finished cryptically as she headed off to get their sleeping bags out for their nightly stargazing session.
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TBC
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