A/N: Thanks again for reading my story. Sorry it took so long to post this, been kinda busy at work. Ilovesg1 – yup, actually, when I see Rover I do see Thor, which is what brought about the head nod reference.


Chapter 24 – The one after 23

Jack wandered around the woods, looking for the ship. Hoping against all odds that there would be something left to fly home. He finally found it after several hours by following his nose and the smell of smoke. His heart fell when he found the wreck. It had landed pretty hard and had burned up. There was soot all over it, and the front end was crumpled up where it had hit the ground. It almost looked comical, because it had basically planted itself nose first in the ground, with its back end sticking up in the air.

There were big gaping holes in the front of it, so he crawled through one to get inside and see if he could find anything worth salvaging. The inside was a mess. Everything was smashed apart and covered with soot. He managed to crawl to the communications console and tried to see if he could get anything working, but there was no power. He opened up several of the access panels to check on the crystals and saw they had been smashed in the crash.

He sat back and rubbed his hand over his face, disappointed at the loss. There wasn't even a usable zat left, all of the weapons, food, everything on board was damaged or destroyed in the fire. He climbed down and headed back to Sam.


Sam slept most of the day. When she woke up during the late afternoon, she found some food and a full canteen that Jack had left for her, and was thankful she didn't have to move much. She looked to the entrance to the cave and saw Rover turn to her as she looked at him. She chuckled softly remembering Jack talking to the animal that morning. She didn't hear what he had said, but wished she had had a camera to take a picture of the skeptical General talking to a 'mythical monster'.

As she finished her lunch, she heard her radio click. Jack had left that within easy reach for her as well. "Jack?"

"Hey Sam, I hope I didn't wake you. I didn't want to say anything if you were sleeping."

"No, it's ok, I woke up a little while ago. Did you find the ship?"

"Yeah, it took a while, but I found it. It's a total loss. I'm sorry. I'm on my way back now, I should be there in an hour. I just figured I'd check up on you now that I'm in range again."

"Everything's fine, I'll see you soon."

"Rover still hanging around?"

"Yeah, he hasn't moved from the cave entrance."

"Ok, great, I'll see you soon."


They spent the evening in relative quiet, each lost in thought, trying to figure out what they should do next. At one point Sam nearly broke out laughing when she raised her view from the fire to look at Jack. He and Rover were looking at each other. Except, they weren't just looking at each other, they looked like a couple of kids having a staring contest. Neither one looked away and neither seemed to blink.

"Jack?"

No response, still staring at the dragon.

"Jack?" A little louder this time.

He raised his hand, index finger pointing upwards. "Just a second. I'm trying something."

Sam frowned and shook her head with an incredulous smile on her face, but she continued to watch. After a few more minutes, she saw Jack nod once and then kind of nodded his head towards Sam while still watching the dragon. Rover then turned and looked at Sam.

She was surprised at Jack's behavior and looked at Rover for a moment to see if there was something about him that would cause Jack to have been concentrating on him so intently. He looked the same as ever. Gray, big black eyes which looked like they held incredible intelligence, almost like looking at Thor, well, the gray pointy face and big black eyes, not the horns, wings, claws, scales, fangs. Like Thor, but not like Thor. Well, now that she looked at him, it was a little disconcerting how earnestly he was staring at her, but, that was it. She was about to turn to Jack and ask what he had been doing when a thought of how they might be able to look for inhabitants of the planet occurred to her.

"Jack, I was thinking. Maybe if we climbed part way up that mountain to the west, we would be able to see if there are any towns anywhere nearby."

"YES!" he immediately burst out and then pointed to Rover. "Thank you! I'm not crazy." This of course made Sam wonder what he was talking about, because clearly, he was acting crazy.

"Jack? What's going on? Would you care to prove to me you're not crazy?"

He waved his finger at Rover. "It's him."

"He's the crazy one?"

"Yeah. No. No one's crazy. He's telepathic."

Sam's jaw nearly hit the ground. "What are you talking about? You're one of the most skeptical people I know about that kind of stuff and now you're saying Rover is telepathic?"

"Yeahsureyabetcha! Sam, I was a couple of clicks north of here in some pretty thick woods when he came and found me yesterday and practically told me you needed help. He stood guard over us last night until I woke up. When I asked him this morning to keep an eye on you he stood guard over you all day. And just now I, well, um... well, just trust me. He's telepathic." He started squirming a bit before revealing what he had just done. He was trying to prove to her he wasn't crazy after all. Plus he really didn't want anyone to know how far he had gone to figuring out if it was true. He had a reputation to keep.

Of course Sam would have none of that. "What happened just now?"

"Nothing."

"Jack. What were you doing?"

"OK. But it doesn't leave this cave." At her slight nod, he continued. "I asked him, in my head, if there were any other people around."

She sat back a little bit, surprised at the admission and then she laughed a little. "You asked a dragon, with your mind, if there were people around?" After looking at him for a moment to see that he was being serious, she asked, "What did he say?"

"He didn't SAY anything. You were sitting right there, did you hear him say anything? I just, well, got the thought in my head that if I climbed the tall mountain to the west I might see a town far off in the distance. Then I asked him to tell that to you."

Jack nearly started laughing -

Government issue cooking pot: About 10 bucks.
Cost to run the stargate program for one year: Seven Billion, four hundred and seven million dollars.
The look on Sam Carter's face when she realizes over dinner that her pet dragon just sent her a telepathic message: Priceless.