8
Chapter 5: Finding The Way Home
Jack slept well and rose up after the sun. He ate the rations the guards had on hand. He found a bag to use as a pack in spite of it's size. He loaded it with extra bedding, water, and whatever food rations he could salvage. He took two stunners and a knife, and hiked out of mine building complex.
There was only one road. It was obviously the only road to the mine. It had to lead back to civilization on this planet. Since his prison companions had already told him that no one had ever escaped, that civilization would have no idea that he had escaped from said prison.
However, considering how long the ride here had been, Jack could expect the hike back to be horribly long.
Jack set out at a good pace. He stopped to rest as often as he needed. He took time to eat and drink water. He kept an ear out for other water sources as well.
Jack was glad to note that the guards were fairly lazy. They had taken the time to make their path to the mine as easy for the hover vehicles as possible. Areas of rocky ground were left alone, mostly. The larger rocks were cleared out of the path the vehicle would make. To Jack's trained eye, made it very obvious. The fields were avoided due to bogging. Areas where they could not be avoided were paved.
To Jack, it was like the guards had made an arrow for him to follow back to civilization. Teal'c had been training him for years on how to follow the more subtle tracking signs. These were not subtle in the slightest. For all their advanced technology in having hover vehicles, they seemed to fail to appreciate how to properly use them to avoid detection.
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In the late afternoon, Jack was following the path along a winding canyon. The steep walls of the canyon had been cut by the stream running next to the path. But the stream had wandered and left a large raised area. That area had been used by the guards to build and enforce their road.
A new sound echoed down the canyon. It was definitely mechanical. It sounded like another vehicle coming in the direction that Jack was headed.
Jack took a moment to survey his surroundings and he found a good hiding place next to the canyon wall. It was behind some bushes and would completely conceal him and his bag.
Jack could also watch the vehicle to see what it was. He may not be defending this planet, but he could be concerned for the men he had left at the prison. He could only hope that the guards had not gotten an alert out to the city. Today was only one day after the prison break. It would be a horrible coincidence if the guards were to be relieved today.
The vehicle streaked by much faster than Jack thought. It was one of the smaller model vehicles. Not like the big transport vehicle model that had brought Jack up to the mine. It could only hold maybe four people. The windows were mirrored. It didn't even hesitate near his position. Jack was sure it had not seen him.
Jack waited until the sound of it no longer echoed down the canyon before he crept out of his hiding place. He took a long drink and then refilled his water. Then he started hiking down the path again.
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Sam sat with Boyd in the transport as they approached Tràill Slubhail. During the daytime, the mine would be in operation. The Weard would be mostly underground unless they had been radioed to expect a shipment of prisoners. Sam was nervous.
Relax. You have a good plan, the symbiote said.
I know. But I still worry about him. He hates mines. Hell, I hate mines, Sam told the symbiote. Sam had found that she actually liked talking to the symbiote. She refused to call her Sam in her head. It was too weird.
"Something is wrong," Boyd said suddenly.
Sam suddenly paid attention to the buildings in the distance. She could make out men walking around. Lots of men walking around. More men than they had been told had been assigned to guard the mine. Wait…
"Boyd, drive into the buildings slowly. Let's go introduce ourselves," Sam told him.
"But the Weard…" Boyd said.
"They are not wearing Weard uniforms," Sam pointed out. "I think they are prisoners. Escaped prisoners at that," she said with a smile. It figures Jack wouldn't need my help, Sam told the symbiote.
"Alright," Boyd said cautiously. He drove slowly into the center of the buildings.
The vehicle was immediately surrounded by men. This close they could see that none of the men wore Weard uniforms. In fact, they had a variety of civilian clothing. Most of it worse for wear.
"Leave your weapons," Sam told Boyd. He nodded.
Boyd and Sam slowly opened their doors and stepped out of the vehicle. The men did not lower their weapons, but they did not fire them either. Sam considered that progress.
"Hello, we came to help. I am Sam. This is Boyd…" Sam started.
"You are a woman," a man stated to one side. He seemed to be in awe of her presence.
"Yes, I am," Sam replied.
"She wears the same clothing as Jack," another man said, pointing to her t-shirt, BDU pants, and boots.
"Yes, I am looking for Jack. Is he here?" Sam asked.
"Are you an outlander as well?" a third man asked.
Sam sighed, "Yes, I am." Sam replied.
"Shaw! By hand of Brigid herself! Brother!" Boyd exclaimed in joy.
The second man whipped around to stare at Boyd, "Boyd? Is that really you, Brother?"
Boyd was beaming now, "It is. I had not hoped to find you still alive."
"I chose to survive," Shaw told his brother.
"We chose to survive," the rest of the men echoed, like a mantra.
Shaw came forward and clasped his brother's arm before grabbing him in a hug. Tears freely fell from both men's eyes.
"I am so glad to have volunteered to have come. Sam needed a driver. I wanted… I am not sure what I wanted. But I am glad to have you returned to me," Boyd said gladly.
The third man came forward, "I am Teàrlagh," the man introduced himself. "You came with Jack from the Outlands? His team?"
Sam turned her attention to Teàrlagh. "Yes. Where is he? I came to take him home."
Teàrlagh laughed, "You missed him. He left this morning." He turned wary eyes on her, "He could have left at any time. He had the means and the skill. But he chose to free us all first. He stayed two extra days and risked much to ensure that he could free us all. He… He told me that I had to choose to survive. I had to choose to live. That dying was easy, living was hard."
"He is a good man. I met him about a year after he made the decision to live. Since then, he takes people who steal freedom from others personally. It has become his new purpose. To help people to choose to live," Sam said with a smile. "He convinced another of our teammates to betray everything he had been taught his whole life, because that man knew it was wrong. Teal'c started a revolution. He is freeing his people from slavery. All because he took a chance at living. He choose to live. He choose to be free."
Teàrlagh nodded, "He did not tell me that. He did mention Teal'c though and Daniel and Carter. He worries for them."
"We worry for him too," Sam said. "I'm Carter. Major Samantha Carter. I go by Sam."
"He worried the most for you then," Teàrlagh said. "He said you had not gotten to safety when he was stunned, but the other two had."
"Yes," Sam replied. "I sent them to radio back our status while I went after the Colonel. Jack. I have not heard from them since. Out of range," Sam replied.
Most of the men in the crowd had dispersed. A few had hung back. Twilight had fallen and another man stepped forward.
"Lass, will you and Boyd come join us. We have not had news from back in Moray in some time. I am Alistair," the man introduced himself.
"Alistair? Are you married to Ehl?" Sam asked.
"I am. Have you heard from her?" Alistair asked eagerly.
"I have. She helped me my first day in Moray. She told me about the curfew and gave me clothing to disguise my Outlandish clothes as I traveled the city. She misses you. She is helping others as much as possible in your name," Sam told him. "Please, call me Sam."
The man sobbed in relief to hear news of his wife. "Thank you, Sam," Alistair cried. He took himself off to one side after pointing out where the others were gathering.
Sam and Boyd spent that evening passing on news of various events that had been going on in Moray. Occasionally, the symbiote would pass on information to Sam and Sam would relay that information as knowledge to the others. Boyd was the only one who was not surprised by the fact that the outlander knew so much about their society.
By the end of the evening, it was decided that a representative would return to Moray with Sam and Boyd to talk to Artair on behalf of the prisoners.
Sam had cautioned the prisoners to be wary of additional prisoner transports. They could take them out, after the Weard were out of the truck. She also demonstrated how to remove the trackers from the stunners. Then she left them to planning.
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The next morning, Sam, Boyd, and Shaw were all loaded into the vehicle and headed back to Moray. Sam calculated how many klicks Jack would be able to make in a single day. Then she had Boyd slow the vehicle to a crawl.
Sam opened the window and sat on it and started to call out to Jack as the vehicle inched forward.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill… Colonel Jack O'Neill…" Sam called out for what seemed like hours. She kept a water bottle in one hand to keep her throat wet. "Colonel Jack O'Neill…"
Two hours after her calculated hiking point, Sam watched his figure stumble out of the bushes on the side of the road. It was obvious that he had heard them and taken cover until he could determine if they were friendly or not. That was one of the reasons why Sam had decided to hang out the window. She was definitely friendly.
Boyd sped up the vehicle until it pulled up to Jack. Sam immediately jumped out and ran up to him. His face was in sort of a shocked awe. It was so adorable it was cute.
Sam grabbed his shoulder and his neck and kissed him. It was meant to be chaste. It didn't stay that way for long. His lips parted and Sam responded with the kind of deep longing that had driven her to hunt him down in the first place. She devoured him. His arms wrapped around her. Their tongues battled for dominance. They only parted for air.
Sam leaned her forehead against his, "Jack," she whispered, just for him.
"Sam," Jack replied.
Sam looked and she could see his eyes were still closed. But he was thinking. She had to stop that. It led to locked rooms and pain. She whirled grabbed his wrist in one hand and dropped long enough to grab his bag in the other before she drug him back to the vehicle.
Sam let go of his wrist long enough to open the back door and toss in his bag. Then she started to shove him inside and closed the door behind him. She took a deep breath and then climbed into the front seat of the vehicle and raised the window.
"Alright, Boyd. Take back to Artair's compound," Sam directed Boyd.
"Carter?" Jack asked her.
Sam smiled. She knew what he was asking without words.
You two almost have a telepathic connection, the symbiote pointed out.
Yes. That's why I know how he will react to your presence, Sam told the symbiote. I want to avoid that for as long as possible.
"Boyd is the diver. You know Shaw," Sam said to the back seat. "Artair has been helping me find you. You need a shower and rest before the last leg through the forest."
"Oh hey, Shaw. Didn't see you there," Jack said casually. "And his place is safe?" Jack asked.
"As safe as any place in Moray," Sam replied. "He has been coordinating the rebellion. Shaw escaping from Tràill Slubhail will be a big boon on that front. Exposing the horrors of that place."
"Yeah, I can't see the gestapo liking that," Jack said.
"Is that what you have been calling the Weard?" Sam asked.
"I found a crematorium at that mine, Carter… MILLIONS…" Jack said pointedly.
"They will need to document it. Not for the government, but for themselves. They don't have any media. No papers. No cell phones. It is all word of mouth," Sam told him.
"Their government likely took over that. The gestapo had TV at the mine," Jack said.
Sam looked over to Boyd. "Tell Artair that the disinformation the government is sending out is as harmful as their actions. He needs to combat it with the truth. He needs pictures and stories. I think that was why Alistair was taken. He was in media. Use him," Sam said.
"Carter…" Jack said. "This is not our planet. We can't get involved."
Sam sighed, "I know. At least, not more than I already have." Then she grinned, "Or you have, for that matter."
"What did I do?" Jack asked.
"Escaped another inescapable prison," Sam replied.
"And you?" Jack asked. Sam could hear the grin.
"I MAY have helped start another revolution… I really didn't like the way the Weard were treating women," Sam said with a snort.
"The women are not cultural slaves are they?" Jack asked with humor.
"No… just pawed and groped by the creepiest Weard under the worst excuse. If a man tries to stop it, he is arrested for interfering in a government interrogation," Sam said with anger.
"I know I wouldn't stand for that. How many did you beat up?" Jack asked.
"I just killed the one. But it sort of… set a president…" Sam said hesitantly.
"Really? You didn't even kill Turgan. What did you do?" Jack asked curious.
"Okay, it all started with the bean-sìthe. Ehl told me that they don't send the women to the mine. But to get the women to obey the curfew they started accosting them after dark. Raping them. If the women accused the Weard, they were called bean-sìthe. When Ehl said it, it sounded like banshee. The wailing woman. According to Ehl, the Weard claim that the women were raped by bandits. They just wanted attention so they are making noise.
"I decided to use that to my advantage. After witnessing one molestation in broad daylight too many, I set up an ambush. I killed the Weard. I cut off his balls," Sam said with a grim smile.
"Ouch," Jack whispered from the back seat.
"Then I stole his stunner, and set his radio to wail non-stop. Oh, I figured out how to remove the trackers from the stunners," Sam said as an afterthought.
"The stunners have trackers?" Jack asked alarmed. He scrambled for his two stunners and passed them forward to Sam. "Disable them, please?"
Sam smiled, "Sure. I showed the rest of the guys at the prison before we came after you." Sam quickly pulled out the beacons and stuck them together. She lowered the window, then the tossed them out. She handed the stunners back to Jack.
"Thanks, Carter," Jack said with relief. "So how is this a president?"
"Well, I showed Catrina, the woman I was staying with, how to disable the trackers. She asked how I got the stunner. She passed on the story to the rest of the rebel network. They apparently liked the idea and ran with it. Dead Weard have been turning up all over Moray with the same MO," Sam said with a sigh.
"Well, Banshee's do wail for the dead. Of course, that is more Irish than Gaelic," Jack pointed out.
"The Irish were once Gael too," Sam said with a smile.
"And just what were the Carters, my bonnie lass," Jack said with his most outrageous Irish baroque.
"English. Norman French, English," Sam replied.
"Oh, an occupier are you," Jack continued with his Irish baroque.
"Yes, not even high class. Hence to move to America where we mingled with the rabble," Sam said with a grin. "Mom was an American mutt. That makes me half-mutt, half-occupier.
"Bah, your family betrayed the occupiers when they took sides with the Americans. You are well and truly a half-mutt, half-rebel. A rebel mutt if you will," Jack finished.
"I like that. Rebel mutt. What about you? How long has your family been in America?" Sam asked.
"Turn of the century. Grandparents and their kin moved in mass to the Chicago area. As all Irish Catholics do, they bred like rabbits. Parents stuck to the Irish Catholic line. Making me the pure-blooded Irishman you see today," Jack finished.
"Just displaced, geographically," Sam said with a smile.
"Of course," Jack replied with his own grin.
The conversation lulled into an easy silence as the vehicle buzzed over the terrain. Sam's mind wandered. She had never known that about his family. She had assumed he was of Irish descent because of the name. But she had never asked him. She had never had the courage to ask. Now she never would have the ability to ask.
You wish you could know more about him, the symbiote said.
Yes. And you need a better name, Sam replied, changing the subject.
I have always used the name of my current host. You do not want to call me Sam? the symbiote asked.
No. It is too weird. I already talk to myself. You are kind of like my shadow. How about I call you Shade? Sam asked.
It has no bad connotations like shadow. I like it. You may call me Shade, the symbiote said. You will have time to get to know him more on your planet. We are going there next, correct? We can leave before there is danger? Shade asked.
No. I'll send him home. But we can't go home, Sam said.
You do not think I will be safe at all? Shade asked.
I know you will not be safe. My people know how to detect a goa'uld coming thorough the Stargate. You would be found immediately. I cannot risk that, Sam said firmly. You should know that from my memories.
I do not read your memories. I have barely connected to your mind. I can only read your present thoughts… or when you scream your emotions at me, Shade said with amusement.
So, you have to send me images for me to see them? Sam asked.
Yes. Just as I cannot read your mind. You cannot read mine. It is better for us both that way. Saner, Shade said.
Amen to that, Sam replied. Jolinar was not that considerate. I still have her nightmares.
You were host to this Jolinar? Shade asked.
Yes. Jolinar was desperate to escape an Ashrak send to kill her. She hid in me. She was found by my team. The Ashrak found her in me. It killed her, but I survived thanks to her, Sam sighed. That was how my people found out about the Tok'ra. My father is a Tok'ra host.
I am glad I have not had any Ashrak sent after me, Shade said.
Did Ra want you dead? Sam asked.
No. He wanted me under his control, not dead, Shade replied.
Then he would not have sent an Ashrak. They are good hunters, but they kill what they hunt, Sam said. It probably helps that you don't use your real name. Nothing to track but a faint naquadah trail.
They lapsed into silence before Shade ventured an inquiry. Sam, if we cannot return to your world, do you have a place for us to go?
Sam sighed, No. But Jack will try to follow us. So will Daniel and Teal'c. My people will try to look for me. It cannot be a place I am familiar with. But I would like to be able to leave a message for my father.
He will follow you like you followed him. I think he cares as much for you as you do for him, Shade said.
Yes. I think you are right. But it doesn't matter, Sam sighed again. There is always something in the way. Something to stop us from being together.
I see, Shade replied.
Sam lapsed back into silence as she watched the scenery fly by the window. This time she didn't let her mind fall onto any one subject. She just let it feel like she was about to lose her whole world and she had one day left to appreciate it.
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