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In the end, Sam was led by the past to choose her future. She needed her work. She could not define herself solely in her relationships. Choosing Daniel meant choosing love over all else including what made her her. Inevitably it would mean going to live on Lisseth and never doing a day's astrophysics research again. Choosing Jack meant living her life according to rules she had made successful, buoyed by the hope that someday, somehow, he would be ready to be with her again.
Each day she weaned herself a little further away from Daniel. She returned to California and picked up the reins of her research once again. She contented herself with long televideo sessions on the computer to make herself feel a part of the extended family that had developed there on the tiny Minnesota island.
One day, Daniel called. "Sam, Johnny and Chiona want to ask Jack and me a question. Tradition doesn't require that you be there but I think you should be."
He angled the computer so that its camera picked up and sent her the scene in the kitchen. Sam noted that the kitchen held only Johnny and Chiona, Daniel and Jack. Johnny had his arm around Chiona and they both looked very nervous.
Johnny looked, rather helplessly at Chiona. "I have absolutely no idea what we're supposed to do, you know."
Chiona nodded and said, "Dei, Jack, Johnny and I want to get married and we would like your permission." Then she looked at Johnny as if to say, "How hard was that?"
Daniel switched to the Blue language and asked her something heartfelt which she answered in like tones. Chiona looked at Daniel pleadingly.
He cupped her cheek in his hand and looked very sad for a moment but then he nodded and said in English, "I give my permission."
It was Jack and Sam's turn now. Jack wished that he and Johnny had a common language that the others didn't know. Of course they didn't so he plunged ahead in English. "Marrying someone means you are willing to choose them over absolutely everything else." He looked levelly at Johnny, "You lived what happens to the children if the parents aren't willing to do that," he said without any rancor, very matter of factly.
Sam said, softly, "He's right Johnny. It needs to be for keeps. You have only to look around to see the harm otherwise."
Jack smiled slightly toward the computer at Sam and the focused back on Johnny. "Can you do that? Is she that important to you?"
Johnny looked down at Chiona and the expression on his face answered his father's question but he confirmed it by saying, "She is the most important thing in my life."
Jack looked at the screen, at Sam, then and she nodded. "Your mother and I give our permission."
There then ensued a mammoth group hug for those in Minnesota and Johnny came to the computer and hugged it for his laughing mother. Chiona was an answer to prayer. If Daniel had never done anything other than bring Seline and Chiona into her sons' lives, she would be eternally grateful. She refused to think about him as anything other than her boys' future father-in-law and some days, it even worked.
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"We Die Free's" music shaped hearts and minds in the same way that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" made people sit up and take notice, at last, that slaves were real people who felt the same pain as everyone else. Ugly rumors appeared immediately, encouraged by the Manifest Destiny cabal. The most popular ones were that Danny was Daniel's child and that the two brothers were sharing the two stepsisters. The vast majority of people either didn't believe the rumors or were, secretly, titillated by them. No one stopped buying the music. It seemed that the war was over and Daniel and his family could think about going home.
Daniel was sitting in the kitchen with the two young couples, holding a drowsy baby Danny. They were talking quietly about their weddings, about Lisseth traditions and Tauri traditions and how best to blend them. Suddenly there they heard Jack's voice coming from the living room. At first it was curses and then he must have realized who his audience was and switched to something more acceptable. Suddenly Tealk ran into the kitchen and said urgently, "Jack says you got come into the living room now and see what the television is saying about the massahcree."
As they exploded with questions, Tealk ran back into the living room and they hustled back in behind the little boy to find everyone gaping at the television.
The horrific news ran almost without interruption, not only on the all news channels but also on major networks. On P5H793, the entire SG1 negotiating team had been massacred and, apparently, eaten. The locals who had traded for cameras with developing capabilities early on had proudly taken pictures. The desire to negotiate had particularly strong because there appeared to be a drug on P5H793 that could cure AIDs, still defeating medical investigators after all these years. It was the textbook argument for Manifest Destiny, similar to the pro-choice argument of the teenage girl who is raped by her brother.
When the firestorm quieted, the public got behind the "Stargate Doctrine" which stated two criteria that must be present to justify intervention and conquest of another planet, 1) a compelling Tauri need and 2) "conduct sufficiently below a civilized standard of behavior."
Daniel pulled everyone together from both families as well as Jack and stated the situation. "This doctrine means that there will be a way to permit subduing Lisseth when they have the resources to do it. There will always be a way to manufacture if nothing else something to meet the criteria. I'm not at all sure that the incident on P5H7993 wasn't provoked or even staged by those with interests in the outcome we now have."
Jack shook his head. "Daniel, I have trouble with that."
"I respect your opinion, Jack, but I have an obligation to the Blue People, MY people. I am returning immediately to Lisseth and I am burying the gate. They can send a ship eventually but they don't have that many. If we hide the gate, they will eventually have to leave."
Sam and her sons and Jack were stunned. Daniel's children were surprised in varying degrees but not that strongly. Johnny was the first to speak. "Think of the cost to your family, to Chiona!" He took a couple of steps forward but she was holding his hand and pulled him back towards her.
"There is going to a terrible cost for all of us. Those that go to Lisseth will never see those that stay there again. Tealk and Jak will come back with me." He looked at his boys who didn't seem disposed to argue. "The rest of you are old enough to make up your own minds. Jonas, Jack, Sam, I asked you to be part of this discussion because you will be very affected by the decisions that the others make. I care about all three of you and leaving you behind and any of my children who choose to stay will be unutterably painful but there are thousands of lives for which I am responsible."
Absolute silence reigned. Daniel looked at each one. "Talk to each other. Think about it. Talk to me if that will help. But I can't believe that any of you would betray me to the government, prevent me from going back."
Jonas said, "You know I wish there was someway we could all be together, don't you?"
"Of course, Jonas. You know we love you." Jonas hugged him and went outside to walk along the water's edge.
The rest of the group dispersed then, Trina the only one staying behind to talk to Daniel. "Honey, you are the most brilliant person I've ever met," her father told her. "If you want to stay here to study, to do research, I think we can find people to look out for you. You will never be able to realize that potential on Lisseth."
Trina said, in a very small voice, "I love you Dei and my brothers, Seline, and Danny but I was always out of place on Lisseth. I knew this question was going to come up and I have been thinking about it a lot. If you think there would be someone I could stay with, that I wouldn't be completely alone, I want to stay here."
He nodded, tears starting to run down his cheeks and held her to him for a long time as she began to cry herself.
Daniel wasn't surprised when Johnny and Chiona came within an hour to announce, "We've decided to stay here. Trina's staying, right?" Daniel nodded. "They need family and Johnny needs a broad canvas for his music."
"What about what you need, Chiona?" he asked sadly.
"I need Johnny. And," she laughed, "I have to admit, I have really enjoyed being a rock star myself, so far. But it does mean that we need to get married right away because we want you at the wedding."
After they left to talk about the details of the ceremony, Daniel leaned back and closed his eyes. He had expected the decisions so far. Although he hadn't talked with Jack or Sam yet, their decisions were obvious. Why would Jack do anything but stay here with his son and his memories of Sara in the place they had shared? Why would Sam leave her work, at least two of her sons, and Jack?
Now he waited for the wildcards had to be played out. Jack and Seline came to talk to him without Danny. When he looked a question at Seline's empty arms, she said, "Chiona's got him."
It was Seline who told them their decision, "Dei, we want to come with you."
Daniel sternly suppressed the joy in his heart. This had to be right for them. He looked intently at his beloved son. "Jake, you won't be able to make a living with music or acting. You'll have to start from scratch, a new language and everything. Your brothers and your mother will be here. Are you sure?"
Jake said, slowly, "I won't pretend it was an easy decision. There is enormous pain, no matter what I do, but I think this is best."
Daniel went looking for Sam then. He found her as far from the house as you could get on the little island. "Sam," he said quietly. She was so lost in her thoughts. He didn't want to startle her.
She turned toward him and looked at him sadly but with great fondness. "Daniel, I guess I've been out here a long time. I hope you weren't worried."
He went forward then and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her and taking her hand. "I've created a hideous situation for you and it's killing me."
"You're doing this because you are Daniel," she said, tracing designs on the back of his hand. "I can't blame you for that."
"You've talked to Jake. You know his decision?"
"As much as it hurts me," she said, broken hearted, "I am glad that, in the end, I didn't take him away from you."
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They organized a double wedding for Jake and Seline and Johnny and Chiona. By using a judge Jack knew to get the licenses and a minister Sam knew to perform the ceremony, they kept the media out of it completely. The ceremony was held outside on Jack's island. There were only a few guests from outside the family and none suspected the sorrow going hand in hand with the joy all throughout the day.
After all the guests and the minister had left, they held a Lisseth wake. When Tealk, Jak, Daniel, Jake, Seline, and Danny left, it would be a form of death to those they left behind and, for those leaving, Sam, Trina, Jonas, Jack, Johnny, and Chiona were lost. The symbolism had no real meaning to Jack or Sam and her sons but the feeling was palpable and drew them in.
Daniel and the party for Lisseth left at dawn the next day and went straight to Colorado. The fact that two of Daniel's daughters had stayed behind lulled any suspicions of Daniel's true intentions. He had also arranged for a letter to be sent to the New York Times one week later that would present a scenario in which he had arbitrarily decided who was going and left those staying behind in ignorance of his decision.
Sam, Johnny, Chiona, Trina, Jonas, and Jack were able to ride out the acrimony after Daniel buried the gate. "Freedom" had left too many people convinced that Lisseth was not a world that merited conquest and Daniel's act was seen by many as heroism rather than treason. Sam and Jack never married but they lived their last 50 or so years together. They watched their children grow old with a history of significant accomplishments in everything they had turned their hand to. Jack died in peace with Sam holding his hand and Johnny and Chiona's children and their children and grandchildren as well as Trina's and Jonas' crowding the room. Sam only outlived him by a few months and she too was surrounded by love at the end. Sam was buried next to Jack and Sara. At her request, there was another tombstone on her other side with Daniel's name. It had a birthday but no death date. It said, simply, "He lives in our hearts forever."