The Alternates

Sam lost track of how long they sat and stared at the Earth but eventually their orbit brought them back over Africa and she sighed. "Guess we should be getting back," she said.

"You sure you don't want to keep going?" He asked only half joking. "We could fly through the rings of Saturn, maybe see an asteroid up close, that would be cool."

For a second a look of complete, pained longing crossed her face and he regretted even suggesting it.

"I wish we could but we can't just leave Daniel and Teal'c stranded down there," she said.

"Yeah," Jack said privately thinking it wasn't the worst idea, "guess you're right. But we are taking the long way back."

"How is there a long way back?" Sam asked as Jack pulled the small ship out of orbit and pointed them at the moon.

Earth's bright satellite grew steadily closer until they could look down and see the rocky, pock marked surface of the moon.

"That's incredible!" she gasped. "It took Apollo 11 three days to get here and we made it in what, in minutes!"

"I thought you knew how fast this ship was?" Jack asked.

"Well, I do, theoretically, actually seeing it is different though. Perspective plays a huge role but when you're calculating astronomical units and… never mind," she said cutting herself off and looking through the forward windows again.

"So," Jack said looking at her with an impish grin, "want to be the actual first people on the moon?"

"Oh, I don't know if we should," she started to say, but he had already broken orbit and was headed for the surface. The ship landed gently and a cloud of moon dust slowly settled around them as Jack killed the engines.

She peered through the front window the monotone rocky terrain stretched out in front as far as she could see. It was like on Earth where the land gently kissed the sky but rather ended abruptly where it met the sharp line of the blackness of space. It was barren and beautiful. "Magnificent desolation," she whispered to herself.

"What?" She heard Jack say from behind her.

"Oh, just something Buzz Aldrin said," she said, still staring out. "But he won't even say it for another 5,000 years."

"Who?"

She whirled around indignantly but the mischievous sparkle in his eye told her he was only teasing. He took a step closer and her heart started hammering in her chest. Gently he took her face in her hands and leaned in to kiss her. Gently at first, then more intently and she felt giddy and dizzy with her need for him. His kiss was a warm fire and she wanted to burn in it.

It might have been a minute or an hour but he slowly pulled away leaving her breathless.

"Alright," he murmured in her ear, "we can go back now."

They were about halfway back to Earth when a light started flashing on the ship's console.

"Uh Samantha," Jack asked, "what might that be?"

"I think it's the proximity alert," she said leaning forward to get a better look. "It's probably one of Ra's ships."

"Can they see us?" He asked

"I'm not sure!" She said running to the back of the ship and pulling down a panel.

"We have got to come up with a better way to check that cloak then rolling down the window and sticking our heads out every damn time," he muttered to himself.

"It should still be on," Sam yelled up to him.

"That ship is headed right for us though." Jack looked through the windshield to see a triangular ship quickly coming into view.

"It could be detecting our energy signature, but I thought the cloak was supposed to mask that too," Sam said dashing back to the front of the ship and dropping into the seat next to Jack.

As if in response a flash came from the Goa'uld ship and flared so close it rocked their small ship. The next bolt impacted the hull and the control panel lit up like a Christmas tree.

"That's not good," Jack said. "If another one of those hits us directly, we're toast."

"Is the shield up?" Jam asked frantically.

Jack shook his head. "I think the last hit fried it. How are they targeting us?"

Sam suddenly gasped. "Oh god, it's the moon dust. It's so fine it's probably statically clinging to the hull and the sun is lighting us up like a beacon!"

"What do I do?" Jack yelled, banking hard as another bolt came towards them from Ra's ship. "Don't happen to see a spaceship wash out here do ya?"

"Get between the Earth and the moon! Once we're in the shadow they shouldn't be able to see us anymore."

He spun them up and around so quickly that for a second the inertial dampeners couldn't keep up and Sam was pressed hard into the co-pilot's seat. Ra's ship turned to follow them but within seconds they were out of the Sun's glow.

"Just keep us here and hopefully they'll lose interest," Sam whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Jack asked. "It's not like they can hear us."

"Oh. Right. Of course." Just then their pursuers flew right over them so close Sam could look up and see their viewports. She held her breath but the ship gave no indication it could still see them and kept flying.

She let out the deep breath. "Whew, that was close," she said. "How much damage did we take?"

Jack was looking over the control panel and wincing. "There's a lot of red. But I think it's mostly the shields. You know how to fix those, right?"

"I'm not sure," she said looking concerned, "they're on a different system than the ones I've been working with and the interface might be…"

"Hey," he said lightly interrupting her, "it'll be okay. We'll figure it out. Do you think we're good to head back?"

"Should be," she said taking a deep breath, "they don't seem to be coming back and with any luck the dust will burn up in the atmosphere."

Staying in the shadow, Jack carefully took the ship back towards Earth and landed delicately through the trees near their camp once again.

"Think they noticed we were gone?" Sam asked, getting up from her seat.

"Probably not, we were cloaked the whole time," Jack replied, killing the engines.

"Good thing," Sam said, hitting the control to open the back of the ship. "I think Daniel might kill us if he knew." As the hatch lowered to the ground it revealed Daniel standing there with his arms crossed.

"You're right, he would," Daniel said very crossly.

"Well dammit," Jack said walking up behind her.