The Alternates

Jack stood in the rear doorway of the time ship and watched Sam work. He was enjoying how focused she was, how she muttered to herself and frowned when she came upon a problem. He quietly walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle and gently kissed her neck.

"Oh my god, Colonel" she exclaimed, trying to spin around and dropping the tool she was holding.

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed letting her go. "I didn't mean to scare you. But can you please stop calling me that?"

"Sorry. Jack. I'm still just trying to get used to... this." She waved a finger between the two of them.

"Tell me about it. We haven't had a minute alone since we got here." He pulled her close again and ran a finger gently across her forehead through her hair. She closed her eyes.

"I uh kinda told Daniel I'd have the cloak ready for an extended test by this afternoon."

"It can wait," he murmured while tracing a slow line of kisses down her jawbone. She gave in and dropped the tool she was holding and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth onto hers. The intensity both frightened and aroused her. She wanted to swim in the sweet warmth of his kiss or maybe drown in it.

Never coming up for air they moved to the back of the ship and leaving one hand tangled in Jack's hair she grabbed his collar with the other and yanked him down on top of her onto the bench that ran along the back. His fingers drifted over her neck, down to her shoulder, then started tugging at the zipper on her shirt.

She felt rather than heard the other presence in the room, and tipping her head back she opened her eyes and saw him standing there.

"Teal'c!" she gasped sitting up suddenly sending Jack sprawling to the floor.

"Argh! What the hell?" he exclaimed.

Sam jumped up and smoothed down her hair. "Hey Teal'c, what's up? We uh, didn't see you there."

The former Jaffa did not look remotely abashed by the scene he had walked into. "Doctor Carter, Daniel Jackson is wondering if you are ready to begin testing the cloaking shield."

"Uh yeah, I mean no. I mean, I should be ready in about an hour."

"Very well," he said, turning to leave, "I shall let him know."

Sam let out a sigh and bent down to pick up her tools.

"Well dammit," Jack said standing up. "If I didn't know better I would say they're conspiring to spy on us constantly." She laughed. God he loved her laugh. He was starting to realize that he would do anything, go to the ends of the earth just to hear it one more time.

Sam had turned back to the part of the ship that she had been working on. Suddenly she sighed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I was just thinking, I know I said that we have to destroy this ship once we steal the gate, and we do, but I wish we didn't have to. I mean, we have a spaceship and we can't even use it! Even coming here we didn't get to see anything since we just went through the gates. What I wouldn't give to explore the solar system a little. I really wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. But, I did work at the department of aerospace, so that's almost as good."

Jack walked up to the front of the ship and sat down at the helm. "Are the engines good to go?" He called back to her.

"Uh yeah."

"What about the cloak?"

"That should be good too, but I was going to go through a few more systems before we did an extended test."

"Well, no time like the present to test that," Jack said, rubbing his hands together. "Have a seat."

"Uh Jack, what are you doing?" she asked as he closed his eyes and the control panels lit up and the engines came to life. The ground fell away below them as they lifted up in the air like a balloon. "Where are we going?" She asked again.

"To explore the solar system," he said, winking at her.

"What about Daniel and Teal'c?"

"Oh I think they'll be just fine for a little while. They can't bother us if we're in space."

"Oh hey Teal'c," Daniel said as he came walking back towards their makeshift camp they had set up. "How's Sam getting on with the cloak?"

"The Doctor and Colonel O'Neill were engaging in carnal relations when I arrived on the ship, however, she said that the cloak should be ready to test within the hour."

"Oh good. Wait, they were what?" Daniel asked incredulously. "Never mind," he said, holding up a hand as Teal'c opened his mouth again. "I don't actually want to know. It's going to be a miracle if we ever get this ship fixed at this rate." Daniel glanced over through the trees to where the ship had been sitting for the past few days only to see more forest. "Uh speaking of which, where is the ship?"

"Perhaps Majoy Carter has activated the cloak?"

Daniel looked up to see the trees overhead swaying even though there was no wind and he realized what had happened. "Are you kidding me?" He fumed. "I am going to kill them. I am seriously going to kill both of them."

"Sir, we haven't actually tested the ship out of the atmosphere and the controls could be different and..."

"Oh will you relax Sam," he said, cutting her off. "It's a space ship. For flying in space. Plus I have the special magic mind powers, what could go wrong?" Within minutes they found themselves in a wide orbit around Earth.

"Wow," Sam breathed. "It's beautiful." The stars dotting the dark blanket of infinity were sharp pinpricks of light without the atmosphere in front of them. And the Earth. The Earth was a perfect blue marble streaked with white clouds hanging like a crown jewel. It was more exquisite and incredible then she ever could have imagined. She felt tears burning behind her eyes at the sheer enormity and majesty of it all.

"Thank you," she managed to get out. He didn't say anything. He just took her hand and in the silence they watched the world turn.