Sam stuck her head in Catherine's sleeping quarters, a converted storeroom at the back of one of the research huts. Catherine had insisted on finding a place to herself, saying that enduring her snoring would be too much to ask of any friendship. Sam saw her now, lying with her back to the door, asleep and of course snoring.
"Catherine?" Sam called quietly, then more loudly when she received no response.
Catherine jolted awake and she saw Sam watching her.
"Huh. What? Sam?" The older woman was still not quite awake.
"President Hayes is asking to see the leadership council. I don't know what's up, but you'd better come with me."
"Just give me a minute, would you?"
"Sure," Sam smiled, sympathizing with Catherine's reluctance to get up and moving.
Although it was easier to get up lately, with the days lengthening and warmth returning to the air, Sam still never felt like she got enough sleep.
Beta's planetary tilt on its axis was greater than that of Earth's, creating harsher winters and hotter summers. Sam had already experienced a few days in Beta's peak summer season years ago when she had come to Beta periodically to help set up the research stations.
"Catherine, how about I meet you on the Prometheus? Take all the time you need."
"I'll be along very soon, tell them."
Sam turned and headed back the way she had come, towards the Prometheus, with its huge, futuristic bulk parked right in the center of the clearing, contrasting starkly with the rough, camp-like atmosphere of the rest of the colony.
Having been a part of its design and construction, Sam felt a secret flush of pride whenever she climbed aboard. Her happiest day since the tragic destruction of Earth had been the day when the Prometheus had unexpectedly sailed into the heart of the new colony, instantly raising hopes and morale.
A meeting of a handful of the colony's leaders was already in progress when Sam slipped in and stood in the back.
She found herself automatically looking around for Jack before she remembered he was still away. After 6 days, she missed him terribly and hoped Daniel wouldn't find some reason to extend the trip, as he had hinted that he might.
"General Hammond, did I miss anything?" Sam whispered to the bald man standing next to her.
"It seems a communication was sent through the Stargate this morning from the Tok'Ra. They have learned that the Goa'uld have reason to believe that we escaped through the Stargate, and they are searching everywhere for the remnant from Earth. The Tok'Ra think we should take immediate precautions."
Sam tuned into what was being said by the man addressing the assemblage.
"The Prometheus is equipped with stealth technology and can be cloaked. The rest of the settlement looks fairly primitive and shouldn't raise suspicions from a ship scanning the planet from orbit. However, the greenhouses may need to be moved. It is probable that the naquadah generators and Asgard technology that the greenhouses are equipped with may be detectable from orbit."
"Well, if that's so, where can we move the greenhouses where they aren't in danger of being detected?"
"That is the problem we need to get our science team working on. Meanwhile," President Hayes ordered, "there is to be no use of any technology that may attract the attention of the Goa'uld should they get close enough to discover Beta. All G'ouald weaponry or any other Goa'uld technology must be removed to an Asgard protected planet immediately."
"For now," General Hammond concluded in his calm voice of authority, "there is no immediate threat and may not be for years. But we can't afford to let down our guard. Let's get some action proposals on the table by the end of the week."
In spite of the fact that the military was obsolete now, everyone could almost hear the unspoken 'dismissed' tacked on to the end of the General's statement.
Sam left, shaken and unsettled, wondering what the future held for this fledgling colony.
Jack wiped his face in a familiar gesture of boredom.
"Daniel!"
"Jack, I know it's here. I just need to figure out how to access the chambers..."
Daniel continued to obsessively scan the bleak plain they had been hiking along for what felt like forever.
"Okay, maybe here, dig here. I'm getting some readings of a cavity about five feet down," Daniel muttered at a rapid pace.
Daniel's earlier recon of this area had shown some evidence of the presence of curiously symmetrical underground caverns when an infrared survey had been conducted. This indicated that the caverns were hotter than the surface, indicating the presence of some unknown heat source.
"I'm getting some heat readings from over here," Guthrie observed, intently studying a sink hole formation not too far away.
"Woah! Here's a vent, looks like this may punch through to a cave of some sort."
It took about an hour of serious digging to clear an opening large enough for the team to squeeze through one at a time.
They found themselves in a rough chamber of very disappointing proportions to Daniel, who, based on his data, had been expecting a much grander cavern to be revealed.
Daniel scoured the walls with a frustrated expression, clearing excess dirt and fallen rocks out of his way as he hunted for something to support his data.
Jack waited silently, having learned from years of experience that it was best to allow Daniel to operate freely. Guthrie retreated to the outside to join Riley on watch while Pete stayed, arms crossed, in the entrance.
"Daniel, there doesn't appear to be anything here," Pete said carefully.
"There is, there's something behind this layer of sediment that I just...can't quite..."
Daniel was scraping obsessively at a loose greyish slab of rock with his bare hands.
Pete and Jack exchanged a doubtful look but remained silent, waiting.
The slab suddenly fell from the rock face, where it had been wedged in a perfectly fitted recess.
Jack's eyes widened and he leaned down to share Daniel's line of vision.
"That looks familiar."
"Yes, it does."
Daniel laid his hand on a hand shaped receptacle of Ancient design.
Nothing happened.
"What is that?" Pete said, astounded.
Pete was hanging wide-eyed over Daniel's shoulder, staring at the strange gelatinous substance the middle of the device was composed of.
"We've seen this before, on a weapon found on Earth that was built millenia ago by a race we call the Ancients. We used it to fend off the second Goa'uld attack on Earth," Jack explained.
"You mean the invasion was the third time the Goa'uld attacked Earth?"
Sometimes Jack forgot how few people knew the history they had been privy to in the SGC.
"Yes."
"Then why didn't we use the weapon again to stop them from destroying Earth?"
"The weapon's power source went dead, and we were unable to find another source of energy in time," Jack answered.
"This thing seems dead too," Daniel observed sadly, fitting his hand into the palm-shaped pad once again.
Unable to resist touching the thing, Pete reached over Daniel's shoulder and tried his hand too.
Nothing happened.
"Jack, you got the device on Earth to work," Daniel pointed out.
You know I don't have the knowledge of the Ancients up here any more," Jack said, tapping the side of his head.
"Just try, please?"
Jack reached out and placed his hand in the middle of the device. It immediately came to life, the gel inside glowing and beginning to swirl under his palm.
He yanked his hand back spasmodically, then deliberately put it back to see what would occurr.
All but Jack backed off apprehensively as an ominous rumbling started beneath them. A doorway was slowly swinging open just beyond the panel in the dirt wall, dislodging debris as it opened for the first time since the Ancients had sealed it and left.
When the doorway finally finished moving and the crumbling of rocks and dirt around them had ceased, the men breathed out in relief.
"Now what?" Pete wondered out loud.
No sooner had he spoken when the passageway beyond the doorway lit up from some unseen source further within, as if to invite them to come exploring.
"Well?" Jack asked cryptically of the dumbfounded men around him.
"Shall we?"
Sam sat on the ridge just beyond the colony overlooking the southern horizon.
This was her thinking place, and she was presently deeply involved in thought over the question of how to prevent the discovery of Beta by their enemies.
There had to be a way to disguise the energy signatures being emitted by the naquadah technology the colony was using.
The urgency of figuring it out, and quickly, weighed heavily on her mind and mood. The mere suggestion that the Goa'uld might locate and attack Beta panicked her beyond words.
She stood up and stretched, wistfully scanning the terrain to the south.
She wondered what Jack and his team were doing right now, and felt a pang of regret that she hadn't taken him up on his invitation to go with them.
She closed her eyes, fervently wishing them to be safe.
The expedition team was headed for home. Jack had decided that their discovery should be shared with the leaders as soon as possible. The ruins they had uncovered weren't just another Ancient outpost like the site in Antarctica, as significant as that would have been.
The little they had seen indicated that a much more extensive find, a city perhaps, lay undisturbed below the ground.
But Jack's unvoiced reason for going back immediately was more basic.
He missed Sam.
He couldn't believe how much he missed her.
He hadn't realized until this time apart from her how much time they spent together or how often he sought out her company.
This was the first time he'd experienced loneliness since arriving on Beta, which amazed him, considering that loneliness was a feeling with which he had once been intimately acquainted.
The difference being that back on Earth he had just been lonely.
Now, he was lonely for her.
The team arrived back at the colony after dark on the second day of their trek, testimony to how hard they had pushed on the return hike.
They went directly to seek out Hayes and Hammond on the Prometheus to share their findings, where they in turn learned of the Tok'Ra's warning received in their absence.
It was agreed that the leadership would meet first thing the next morning to draw up a plan of response in light of these developments.
Sam was bent over staring at the screen of her computer, intent on her research, when Daniel and Jack walked into her lab later that evening. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn't even look up.
"Watcha doin'?"
Sam sat straight up with an audible gasp, and whirled to face the two men in the doorway.
"You're early!" She blurted out.
"Well, we could go back for a few more days, if you'd like," Daniel offered facetiously.
Sam's face lit up in an ecstatic grin, and she ran over to give Daniel a warm, 'welcome home' hug.
She then turned and plastered herself to Jack, to his complete delight.
"I missed you-"
"Me too," Jack agreed.
"I missed you too, Sam," said Daniel hopefully.
"Goodbye, Daniel," Jack said pointedly.
"Goodbye, Jack," Daniel answered, tactfully slipping out of the lab.
"Goodbye, Daniel," Sam called happily after his retreating form,
"I'm so glad you're-"
The rest of her sentence was cut off by an impatient mouth descending longingly over hers.
She quickly forgot what she was saying anyhow.
The next morning's meeting was quick and decisive.
A larger team was to return to the Ancient site to determine if it was feasible for the colony to relocate there. If so, the relocation effort would begin immediately.
The greenhouses and their precious contents would remain behind at the research base until it was determined they could be safely moved. A contingent of scientists-turned-gardeners would stay to care for them for now.
Since Jack was so far the only person who had successfully interfaced with the Ancient technology, he would be stationed at the site indefinitely.
The return expedition would make the journey in the Prometheus.
Jack and Sam left the Prometheus when the meeting ended and talked as they walked, no particular destination in mind, simply enjoying one another's company.
"Hayes wants to go to the site tomorrow, Sam," Jack informed her.
"That quickly? And you're going?"
"I have no choice, you heard the report," Jack answered.
"So what time are we leaving tomorrow?" Sam asked, slipping her arm through his.
Jack's eyes lit up.
"Really? What about the greenhouse project?"
"Catherine knows what to do by now."
Jack smirked.
"That sounds like some very wise advice someone gave you about ten days ago."
"All I know is I'm going with you this time," she responded earnestly, her eyes betraying her heart.
"Sweet."
