They had been held in those tunnels for God knew only how long, and Sam didn't see the end coming. Why couldn't the Tok'ra trust them, for crying out loud!... Why couldn't they let her go see her dying father? Did they have no feelings at all?...
"He doesn't even know why I'm not there for him. He thinks I'm off somewhere working on some damn satellite dish or something." She said in a fit of despair, her arms hanging loose at her sides.
Jack touched her shoulder reassuringly.
"We're gonna get you back there Sam. The good news is, there's eight of us now."
"That's good news?" Conrad asked, bewildered.
"Yes!" Said Jack as if stating the obvious "More manpower!"
"Is this another one of your strange jokes?" Kawalsky quipped.
"Ah, no." Jack replied.
"It would be impossible." Kawalsky resumed "There is only one way out, via the rings. We would then have to elude hundreds of snakeheads."
"I for one don't want to hurt any of them." Samantha said vehemently.
"Look, I'm not too thrilled about hurting anyone either. But keep in mind these people wanna make you a host, and as I recall you said that whole 'Jolinar Goa'uld in the head' deal was one of the worst things that ever happened to you!" Jack said, getting a little upset at their lack of enthusiasm for what seemed to be their best shot at getting out of there.
"That's before I understood it better. If I wasn't fighting her and I knew what it meant for Jolinar to be a Tok'ra, it might have been, I don't know, enlightening." She replied, anguish turning her insides into jelly. She had to admit Jack had a point, she found the Tok'ra's contempt towards the alliance they offered disgusting, and their lack of humanity made her feel like retch. The only interest the Tau'ri held in their eyes was that they could become hosts... hosts? Just like cattle! Christ, it was disgus... Wait a minute... That could be the solution for her dad, and a solution for their dying Selma'c too, and ultimately, it could very well help them conclude that alliance and be a peaceful way out of this!
Samantha didn't think the whole thing over twice. "I need to see Garshaw!" she exclaimed, stepping before a bewildered Jack O'Neill.
"What? He asked.
"What is the one thing that they need the most?" she asked him expectantly.
"Well, hosts, which we can't give them." He replied.
At that moment, Garshaw entered, followed closely by Martouf.
"What is it?" the distinguished woman asked.
Samantha stepped forward.
"You said that the symbiot can cure most problems in a human."
"Yes." The Tok'ra replied.
"Does that include cancer?" she asked, hopeful.
"What is cancer?" Martouf asked, not understanding.
"It's a disease in humans where the cells grow out of control, you get tumors..." Jack supplied.
"Oh yes, it's a common ailment amongst your species. We cure it all the time, it's no problem." Garshaw responded.
"Colonel, I think we should at least try to offer it to my Dad?" Samantha asked him.
Jack was beginning to see where Sam was headed.
"We might have a host for you." He said, thus concluding Sam's thought and showing her his understanding.
"You have a host for Selma'c?" the Tok'ra asked.
"Yes. My father. He's got cancer and if Selma'c can save his life I think he'd be willing to try it." She said enthusiastically.
"But you have to let us go back." Jack warned.
"I will let two of you go. But the rest will remain to ensure that you will return." Garshaw said carefully.
Samantha and Jack nodded and were led to the rings.
A few hours later, and after much convincing, General Hammond and Dr. Carter-O'Neill reached her father's bedside.
"Clear the room, people." General George Hammond said as he entered Jacob Carter's room.
"I told you not to recall her." Jacob said weakly, obviously upset.
"Happy to see you too, Dad." Samantha said in a heartfelt attempt at sarcasm.
"You wanted me to tell you what your daughter does underneath Cheyenne Mountain, so I thought maybe she could tell you herself."
"Yeah? What happened to the classification?" Jacob replied bitterly.
"It's still classified. But you just got clearance." Hammond replied cautiously.
"Why?" Jacob asked, sighing.
"Well, believe it or not, we need your help, Dad." Samantha told him.
"What? The Pentagon wants me to deliver a message to God when I get up there?" Jacob smirked.
"Not exactly." Hammond answered, seriously.
"Well I don't plan to see the other guy." Jacob quipped.
Samantha decided it was time to take the plunge.
"Dad, have you ever heard of the Stargate program?"
"No, is that one of your satellites?" Jacob asked.
"I don't work with satellites, Dad, that was just a cover."
"No kidding. I never would have guessed. So tell me, what do you do that's so great you don't want me to get you into the astronaut program?" he said, unmoved.
"Well, this is gonna be a lot for you to take in at once..." she started.
Jacob had had enough... "Stop beating around the bush. What do you do?"
"I travel to other planets. Much farther away than any astronaut goes... That is, when I'm not working in my lab on some piece of Alien technology."
"So you're not going to tell me the truth." Jacob smirked.
"She is telling you the truth, Jacob." Hammond confirmed.
"She goes to other planets. What, like in simulations?" Jacob asked, beginning to feel uneasy.
"No. In reality." Hammond replied, amused.
"We discovered a piece of alien technology. It can send us to thousands of planets all over the galaxy." Samantha resumed, beginning to feel amused at her father's discomfort.
"You're not kidding, are you." Jacob asked his daughter as it began to dawn upon him that they were telling the truth.
"No." She said simply.
"Holy Hannah! So what do you want me to do?" Jacob felt the stirs of adventure pulling at him despite his current situation.
"Well, we'd like you to travel to one of these planets with us." She stated simply.
"Why? So I can die there?" he quipped, trying to understand.
"No. Actually, I'm hoping what we want you to do will cure your cancer." She said, confident.
"They have a cure there? What's the catch?" Jacob asked, suspicious: this looked too good to be true...
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Jacob Carter was pacing the briefing room a worried frown on his forehead.
George Hammond and Jack O'Neill were watching him warily, Samantha O'Neill sitting quietly in one of the chairs.
Jacob finally sighed and grabbed the back of one of the chairs around the table.
"George, we've got intel that Apophis is gathering his forces, and his target is Earth." He finally blurted out.
O'Neill and Hammond looked at each other briefly.
"You're sure about your information, Jake?"
"Yeah. He didn't appreciate your little escape from Chulak, the riot that Colonel O'Neill started among the prisoners, and the resulting death of his mate Amonet. He knows the Stargate is protected. The only way to come to you is through space, and believe me, he knows how to hold a grudge. He's coming for you, Jack..."
"Well that's one more on my list... What can we do?"
"The Tok'ra cannot be of any help on that." Selmak said. "Our field is covert actions, we don't have enough people for an army, and even if we did, we couldn't engage in any action against Apophis. The only thing we can do is keep you up to date with his progress so you will know when..."
"Not much of a choice, have we?" Jack quipped.
"What about the Naquadda generated shield Samantha's working on?" Jacob asked.
"I'm afraid you'll have to ask her... I'm not a science buff myself..." Jack said, raising his eyebrows.
"It's far from even being conceptualized, dad..." Samantha said dejectedly.
"In any case, I don't think a shield would be enough to stop these guys." Jack resumed "We'd need weapons... Big honking guns or canons to kick their asses and send them back where they come from..." he looked at the Tok'ra with expectant eyes. "'Think you can spare a few like that, Selma'c?"
"We do not have such weapons, Colonel O'Neill. You know that. The best we can do is help you design a shield powerful enough to protect you the time you'll need to find how to destroy his fleet."
"Yeah... Buying some time... talk about some good strategic choice!" he said dejectedly. Then he looked at Sam as an idea flashed though his mind. "Sam, what about that Quantum Mirror we found on P3R233?"
"What would you want to do with that?"
"We could go to another reality and try to find some technologies or anything that could help us fight back? "
"Provided we had time for that, Jack... I mean think of the thousand possibilities that exist, and who are most probably at the same level of technology that we are!"
"We could send several teams?"
"No... We can only send one at a time, we only have one remote, and even if I could figure out how it's built to try and reproduce one, it would take me too much time, along with the fact that we do not know the consequences of sending several teams in several different realities."
"The other option is not very appealing either..."
"Jack, I can't be working on several things at the same time, and I'd rather try to concentrate on how to either protect us or defend us."
Jack cast his eyes down, then looked back at Jacob
"Well our best shot is Sam and her brains, then... "
Sam snorted at that. "Don't expect too much from me either. I'm not a magician."
"I am truly sorry, Jack." Jacob said sadly.
"Yeah, me too..." Jack replied, coldly, before turning to the general. "Sir, you might want to start thinking of an evacuation plan to the Alpha site, who, how, what... and so on..."
