Chapter 25 – Escape
"No? No!" Sam ignored the crest-fallen whimper that escaped Leia's lips at Thor's reply and blocked out the waves of grief coming off of the others, and pity from her team mates. "Why the Sith not?"
"Come on, Thor, how many times have we saved your little grey hineys?"
"What is a 'hiney'?"
"Damnit, Thor, now is not the-" A flash obscured her vision and Sam's exclamation degenerated into a growl as she realised that Thor had beamed himself back to his ship. She then realised that he had beamed her and Jack up at the same time. "What's going on, Thor?"
Loping over to a console in the curious bouncy gait that was natural to his people, Thor dodged the question. "I would have transported all of SG-1 up here, but I am afraid that they needed to remain with the others to placate them."
"Damn right they need placating; you just told them that, despite the fact that you could zip us over there in a few seconds, you won't, for no apparent reason!" The frustration and anger in Jack's voice was thinly veiled and Sam could see him struggling to control it.
Biting back her own bitter feelings and suppressing the image of the stricken faces of the people she was responsible for, she took a step towards Jack and laid a hand on his shoulder, lending him strength.
Regarding Thor steadily, she reached out with the Force and tried to get a read on him, pushing past the slightly odd buzzing sensation and the usual difficulty associated with reading an unfamiliar alien. It didn't work, though, and she gave up after a few minutes, surprised when Thor broke the silence himself.
"Many thousands of years ago, my people were wandering through the universe, looking for a galaxy that would be able to support our civilisation. It was during this time that we first encountered and befriended other races and formed the alliance of the four Great Races. During our travels we stopped at a galaxy and encountered a race of beings whose name we do not know. This race was lead by very powerful beings, who - legend tells - were able to control life itself." A sad look passed over the Asgard's usually impassive face and the two humans shared a look. Jedi.
"There are no records of this time, but we know that we settled and were happy there for some time, but our ancestors carried out a great travesty of which no Asgard has ever spoken since, and the beings banished us from their galaxy. Every Asgard knows of this place, and every Asgard has sworn to never set foot there unless-" Thor cut himself off as if he had suddenly realised he'd been about to let something slip that he should not have.
Jack was silent for only a few seconds. "Not even when the whole universe and thousands of sentient beings are in danger?"
"No."
"Well why the hell not?"
"Because we are so ashamed of what we did."
Jack narrowed his eyes and evidently deemed it best to drop the subject, possibly because of the obvious fact that Thor had beamed himself out of the room.
"'All we do is give, and all they do is take.'" Jack gave her a grim smile as he quoted some unknown source and reached out a hand to her.
Sam smiled, "I think he just hung up on us."
"No Kidding. C'Mere."
Sam resisted at first, still not entirely used to intimacy of this sort. She could deal with the more obvious stuff like the kissing because in her own mind that wasn't necessarily a sign of attachment or affection; it could have just been a job, or a way of dodging detection. Though she'd never done anything more than kiss someone herself, her time on Nar Shadaa and her search for the Stargate meant that she'd known enough dancing girls and 'consorts' to have close-up knowledge of it.
To hold him close, and hug him now was something else entirely. This showed that there actually was a connection between them and that she really did care and that, more than anything, scared her.
At the sudden blank mask that shuttered Jack's face when she resisted, however, she relented. "Sorry. I just…it's hard, y'know?"
Jack wrapped an arm around her and held her against his chest, using the Force to sense what she was feeling. Sensing this, Sam let him connect to her mind instead of pushing him out as she slipped her own arms around his waist, looking out of the large veiwport and down at the Earth rotating slowly below. Or above, depending on your perspective.
When she continued, her voice was barely audible. "I haven't let myself get close to anyone in so long that-"
"I know, trust me, I know. I didn't let Sara get close to me after Charlie died, and it took Daniel's pig-headedness to finally get me to break through that."
Sam smiled, hearing as well as sensing the affection behind the comment. "It's a good job you're just as pig-headed then, isn't it?"
"Hmmph."
Sam's smile slipped as she thought about the people currently locked in VIP quarters on the twenty-fifth level of the SGC. While she was safely ensconced in Jack's arms, Corran was down there, several zillion light-years away from his wife and son.
Feeling the edges of frustration and anger threaten to slip out again, she forced herself to focus on the simple beauty of her home planet as it continued business without her.
After so many years of interstellar travel, she took for granted the ability to stand at the edges and observe like this. Stand at the edges…
The phrase reverberated around in her mind for a few seconds before Jack jumped. "That's it!"
His sudden movement had made Sam straighten suddenly and they had bumped heads. "What's it?" she asked as she rubbed at her forehead, irritation on her face.
"Thor! THOR GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE!"
Before he had finished his sentence, light had flashed and Thor had reappeared, looking slightly irritated if the darker grey of his face was anything to go by. "You wish to be returned to Stargate Command?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "Apparently Jack's had an epiphany."
"Thor, you say you won't go into the galaxy, but what about right at the very edge of the galaxy? Could you drop us off there?"
Thor tilted his head to one side a fraction as if considering the option. "I could but it would be suicidal."
"Why?"
"Humans cannot survive in the vacuum of space."
Jack's face took on a 'Doh!' expression as he patiently cleared the matter up for him. "You're thinking too literally, Thor, I mean drop us in a ship."
"That would be possible."
Sam raised an eyebrow, slightly reluctant to break into Jack's enthusiasm. "So, what, we're just gonna steal the Prometheus?"
"No, that would be stupid. The Prometheus went kablammo a few years ago and anyway, we'd need a cloaked ship."
"A Tel'Tak?"
"Exactly."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why a cloaked ship?"
"Well, this Goa'uld guy - if he's at all Goa'uld-like - is going to think that a) his minion took us all out and b) even if he didn't, there's only one 'Gate into the galaxy."
Thor had followed the rapid-fire exchange as if it were a tennis match, his beady black eyes slipping back and forth between the two.
"I still don't get why no-one believes me when I tell them you're a genius!" Sam quipped, grinning at him.
Jack smirked. "They're distracted by my good looks and witty sense of humour."
Sam's reply was drowned out as Thor once again beamed them away without warning.
"-three-year old." Was all that the surprised room below heard. "Thor, could you give us a little warning before you do that?"
"I apologise, Major Carter-"
"Jedi Carter."
Thor gave another head quirk but nodded slowly as if trying to compute why it had changed.
"So, you want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Good news." Corran and Daniel both exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other in surprise.
"Right. Good news is we're going home. Bad news is it was Jack's idea, and he now thinks the sun shines out of his-"
"Hey! What happened to 'genius'?"
Sam gave him an innocent look as the wave of relief and joy washed over her, tinged slightly with doubt.
"How?" Mara asked practically.
"Well, Thor says the Asgard got kicked out of your galaxy thousands of years ago and won't go back, but he will drop us off at the edge of the galaxy," Jack supplied for them as Sam turned to Jacob.
"Dad, we're going to need a Tel'tak for this to work."
"Are you sure? I mean, I don't know how close Thor will drop us, but it could take weeks or even months to get a decent distance into the galaxy."
Sam sighed and gestured to the people sitting in the room. Most were chatting with each other as well as keeping an eye on what was being said. "Dad, look at these people. They all have homes and families, and it's my fault that they're stuck here; I owe it to them to get them back home, and a few weeks makes no difference if the alternative is a prison camp here."
Jacob grimaced but nodded. "Okay, I'll see what I can scare up."
Sam flashed him a smile as he left before she turned back to Thor with a slightly wicked grin. Seeing this as her signal, he activated the small pearlescent device in his hand and seconds later, they rematerialised on Thor's ship. She couldn't help but smile at the awed reactions of the gathered people and even chuckled at Corran's exclamation of 'I have got to get one of those!'
Borakahk had automatically moved in front of Leia, Chewie in front of Han and Sam was slightly annoyed to find Dentralla now blocking her view.
Pushing pointedly passed her and giving her a vaguely irritated look that the tall Wookie was more than used to, she beckoned for Thor to join her in the next room.
Ignoring the puzzled looks of everyone else and motioning for those who tried to follow her to stop where they were, she waited until the door had slid smoothly shut before she spoke.
"I'm going to need you to do a few favours for me please, regardless of what Jack or the others say, can you do that?"
Thor tilted his head to one side as he considered the request, "I will do so only if I feel that it will not betray the trust that has been placed on me."
"Thank you. Can I…?" She gestured a console and he nodded his consent as she moved to in and quickly began setting in a series of commands, occasionally flicking at a console farther away with the Force.
Thor watched in interest, millennia of experience and knowledge straining to find scientific reasoning for her capabilities. She paused only to ask him which of the ship's holds she could use to store things and to remind him that they would need to pick up a Tel'Tak from a planet agreed by the Tok'ra.
Picking up a signal stone, she gave the small, puzzled alien a brief smile. "I have one more thing that I need to do: this is the bit that some of the others aren't going to like, but they have no choice in the matter…they don't know what they would be risking."
Thor nodded silently and took her place at the console.
Mark Carter looked up at the brief flicker of light from the living room, frowning at the sound of something being dropped, followed by a shocked gasp of "Auntie Sam!"
His frown deepened as he walked towards the noise and his daughter. "Jen, you okay?" Why she would call for her aunt Sam was a mystery…Sam was dead, MIA presumed dead for over six years now.
He stopped in the doorway, unable to move at the sight of his sister smiling tightly at him.
"Hi, Mark. Long time, no see," she stood tensely, as if ready to jump into action, and he couldn't help but notice that she looked so different. Her hair was the same, face the same, no disfiguring abnormality and yet…she didn't look the same. Older,
wiser…he couldn't figure it out.
The front door slammed and his wife called out to him as she wandered through to the living room, laden with bags.
Mark couldn't help but notice Sam flinch at the sound of the door, reflexively reaching for the weapon he now realised was holstered on her leg. He'd never known Sam to wear a gun in public, and if she had, it had never been that open. The sight of it made his skin crawl.
"Sam!"
The smile was once again flashed, this time at Shauna and Tom behind her. "Surprised to see me?"
"How did you get in here?" The words tripped off of his tongue before he realised it, and he was surprised to see her smile broaden as she shrugged.
"Don't suppose you'd believe that aliens beamed me in here?"
"You're alive!" Jen seemed to have come out of her shock and had thrown herself at her aunt, wrapping her arms around the surprised woman.
"Hey, kiddo, I missed you, too." The comment reminded Mark of their father, and he felt a wave of bitterness that he had not been to visit in so many years.
Seconds later, the whole family was joining her in a group hug that lasted several long minutes.
Only once they had finally broken away did Sam begin what was, in a round about way, an explanation of sorts.
"Listen, I know this is a shock, and I'm sorry, but there's a lot at stake here. I can only tell you that I was taken to somewhere no-one on earth could find me, but that I'm amongst friends now." She shifted her gaze to Mark again, a look of urgency on her face. "I know this is asking a lot of you, but I don't know of anyone else that I trust anymore…" She opened her mouth to continue, but abruptly shut it again as a bright white light flashed in the room.
Mark blinked and was surprised by the appearance of a tall, silver haired man who looked ready to throttle Sam.
"Sam, what the hell do you think you're…" The man paused and turned to look at the people who were staring slack-jawed at him. "…Hi… Sorry to drop in on you like this...wait, don't I know you?"
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "Jack, this is my brother, his wife, and his two kids."
"Oh, that's right we met at…" The man floundered and frowned a little. "…your funeral…do you have any idea how weird that sounds!"
"Yes." Sam narrowed her eyes at him again. "What did you say to Thor to make him beam you down here?"
Jacks eyes flickered almost imperceptibly towards the family and Sam nodded for him to continue. "It's okay, it's too late now anyways."
"Well, it wasn't so much what I said as what I did."
Sam groaned. "Daniel's right; you are an ass."
"Gee thanks."
"Uh, Sam…?" Mark's strangled words broke off any retorts forthcoming. "You weren't kidding when you said you were beamed down by aliens, were you?"
"Well….no. Listen, I need to ask you a huge favour. I have to go away again…certain factions of our government have forced me into this, and they're not going to be happy when they realise we're gone, but some of my friends have gotten caught up in this, and I can't let them come with me. They're not going to be happy about this, but they don't know what's in store for them, and it would mean getting completely cut off from their families for good. I also need for someone that I can trust to stay here and try and straighten out the situation here for the sakes of the rest of the galaxy and several more besides."
Mark could only gape at her as she took another breath before powering on. "I need you to keep these people here and keep them secret…the higher-ups aren't going to know that they're still on Earth, and this is going to be vital if we're ever to come back.
"Can you do this for me?"
Mark swallowed and glanced at his wife before finally nodding dumbly her. "Yeah," he croaked before clearing his throat. "Yeah, Sam, just…is it really that important?"
"You have no idea." She dug into a pocket and pulled out a small computer disc and handed it to him. "All the information is on here, encrypted and in a language that only two of the people staying will know."
"You're sure about this?" The question came from Jack, who had been regarding Sam with intense concentration for the last several minutes, trying to read what she was thinking and understand her reasoning.
"Yep. They can call on Thor if they need to."
"Daniel and T won't like this…"
She gave him a strained grin. "That's why they're not going to have a choice in the matter." She turned back to Mark again and held out a piece of paper to him. "Give this to Daniel when you see him and tell them I'm sorry." She gave him an apologetic smile. "I wish I could stay but…" She reached for the giant opal-white rock.
"Wait, Sam!" She turned questioning eyes to him. "Is this - is this what Dad's been up to the last ten years?"
She smiled. "Yeah. You might not see him for a while either…" She let the words hang in the air for a moment, knowing that Mark read the implications of the statement.
Mark nodded grimly and turned to Jack. "You keep them safe for me; both of them."
For once, Jack had no sarcastic retort or scathing reply, he simply nodded. "They're family," was all he said, a steely look in his battle-hardened eyes.
In a flash they were gone, replaced by three bewildered forms that Mark also recognised.
"I do not believe we are aboard Thor's ship any longer, DanielJackson."
"No, Teal'c…this appears to be Sam's brother's house…"
The man that Daniel recognised as Mark stepped forwards with a piece of paper. "Uh, Daniel?" At the other man's affirmative nod, he pressed the paper into his hands. "Sam asked me to give you this and tell you that she's sorry."
Janet sighed and looked upwards. "What have you done now, Sam?"
As soon as they arrived back on the ship, Sam let out a breath she hadn't realised that she'd been holding. Turning to Thor and ignoring the indecipherable look that Jack was giving her, she gave the alien a wan smile. "That's it this end." She informed him, "Now it's just off to pick up the Tel'Tak and then on to…the other galaxy."
"You know, we really should think of a name for it." Jack cast a shrug at them. "As catchy as 'the other galaxy' is, it's a bit of a mouthful."
Sam shook her head and felt the glimmerings of a smile pull at her lips, which had no doubt been Jack's intention. Leaving him to chat to Thor, she returned to the room where the others were, their excited apprehension coming off of them in waves, mixed with confusion over where Daniel, Janet, and Teal'c and disappeared to.
She found herself waylaid at the door, however, by an irate furry mountain who proceeded to spend a full five minutes giving her an earful about her habit of wandering off without her.
San bore the lecture stoically. "Finished?" she asked once Dentralla's grumbles finally died away to give a tense silence. The Wookie gave a negative bark and rumbled a terse question, waving her arm into the room for emphasis. Sam sighed. She'd known the question was coming, but she still felt a little guilty for the reply. "They're staying on earth."
"Sam, you know that the government's going to hunt them for their part in this." her father warned, frowning at her.
Corran cut in, his own experience and affirmation through the Force giving him a head start. "Not if they don't know that they're on Earth."
Sam nodded. "I cloaked the various transmissions and made it look like we were only beaming up supplies and weapons."
Jacob frowned. "I didn't know the Asgard could do that."
Reading him through the Force, Sam could tell that he was a little perturbed by the idea that the Asgard could do these things without being detected. "The Asgard can't."
"Then ho- oh."
Sam let lose a wry half-grin. "Let's just say that I picked up a few tricks here and there." She sobered again as Dentralla queried where they were that they couldn't be found. "They're in San Diego with Mark."
"Mark?" Jacob asked, jaw dropping. "Sammy, he thinks you're…"
"Dead. Not any more." She shrugged, secure in the knowledge that she had done what she thought was best. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but they deserved the chance. "Dad, someone needed to stay behind and do something about this rogue CRDO before Earth manages to get itself blown up." She paused a moment before telling them the real reason for leaving Daniel, Janet, and Teal'c behind. "And anyway, they have their own families to worry about…Daniel and Janet have Cass, and Teal'c has Ishta. I can't ask them to risk being stranded in an alien galaxy for the rest of their lives, willing or not."
Jacob gave an exasperated sigh. "And what, you think that leaving them to spend the rest of their lives hiding and running from the government is better?" She could see his anger and feel it rolling off of him in waves.
Her voice remained as calm and quiet as it had been before, but her entire body took on the dangerous, icy demeanour that signalled her controlled anger. "Do not try to second guess decisions that you only know half of the background on."
Everyone in the room, with the exception of Jacob, had the sense to remain quiet as mice lest they come under Sam's scrutiny. "Maybe they will have problems, and maybe they will suffer, but I'm willing to take the risk for the rest of the planet and I know they would too."
"It wasn't your decision to make-" Jacob was yelling now, despite Selmak's attempts to calm him.
"Maybe not, but it wasn't theirs either! You don't know what we're going to face when we get home, but I do! I've seen the worst and it's more than you can possibly comprehend." Giving an enraged and vehement curse in Huttese, she ripped off the gloves that she habitually wore and pushed up her sleeves to show the scars she had amassed. "You see this? This doesn't even scratch the surface of it!" Only now, as she started to delve deeper, into things that she had only ever hinted at in the presence of another being did she start to lose control of her voice. Stuffing the gloves into a pocket she met the eyes of her father, her gaze boring into his as she regained control of her voice. "If I had it my way, even you and Jack would stay here.
"Now, if you would be so kind, Thor needs to know the location of the planet where we'll find the Tel'tak."
Jacob nodded once, his face unreadable, but his Force presence telling her that he was still unconvinced.
As soon as she heard the door behind her slide closed again, she let out a deep breath, banishing the last of her anger with it. Seeing Corran's querying eyes, she gave him a weak and wavery smile. "Never have been any good at banishing my anger," she commented weakly.
Corran shrugged, his expression carefully neutral. "No, but I don't think I know anyone who can control it like you do."
Sam nodded, unsure whether she was being admonished or praised.
A slight tremor ran through the ship and the view outside flickered before coalescing into a view of a radically different planet. This one was a barren rocky world with little vegetation and even less water, except what was trapped in the frozen polar regions.
Within a few minutes, they had secured the Tel'tak in a cargo bay and were whizzing to the edge of their destination galaxy.
Daniel took the proffered note almost hesitantly, his eyebrows knotted in confusion.
He recognised the hastily written scrawl as Sam's, though it had changed a little after so many years of using the Basic alphabet.
Daniel, Janet, and Teal'c,
By now you're probably wondering what in the name of the Force is going on. Well, you're staying put. I know that you were expecting to come with us, and I'm sorry that there wasn't enough time for me to be able to do this face-to-face. But you would have argued, and Thor's ship sitting in orbit for that long after we'd disappeared from the SGC would have raised far too much interest.
I couldn't let you all come with us when you have so much to live for on Earth, and when Earth has so much to live for…
I know that I'm asking a lot of Mark and his family in landing this on them unannounced, but I also know that you're more than capable of dealing with this. Kinsey and the CRDO have to be stopped before they get this planet in even more trouble.
Thor will be hanging around to help you, as you well know that the Asgard High Council isn't impressed with the attitude that the CRDO has adopted… whatever they may say this is the real reason that they haven't visited much. Contained in the disc that Mark has is all the information that you might need and was available to me, including how to contact the Asgard. I'm sure Teal'c will want to visit Ishta at some point, too.
Tell Mark and family whatever you feel they need to know and try to explain to them about Dad.
Hopefully we'll see each other again…
May the Force be with you.
She had, out of habit perhaps, signed her name in Basic.
Though the letter was short and rushed, it told them everything that they needed to know. Sam was trying to protect both them and Earth, and the three of them silently agreed that they would do everything that they could to carry out the colossal task entrusted to them.
