Season 9 Episode 6 – Beachhead

Episode summary: The Ori gain a foothold in on a jaffa-populated planet, when a Prior secures the stargate with a steadily expanding bubble of shielding. Sam is recalled to the SGC to help SG-1 deploy a Mark 9 naquadria enhanced nuclear warhead, in an attempt to destroy the gate and foil the Ori plot. However, the bomb instead feeds energy to the force field, as does the ensuing weapons fire from the Free Jaffa motherships. The Prometheus is forced to join in to prevent open hostilities with the jaffa, and the shield encompasses the planet. The planet's stargate emits blocks that form a massive stargate in orbit, and – when no one will listen to her – Vala rings aboard a cargo ship and pilots it into one of the blocks' positions in the forming stargate, preventing it from establishing a wormhole. The planet collapses into a singularity, and Vala uses the rings to escape the resulting explosion that destroys the Supergate and the cargo ship – but she doesn't appear back on the Prometheus. Sam theorises that she may have been pulled into the singularity, connected to the Ori galaxy.

Jack signed the last of the mountain of forms his secretary had put on his desk with a flourish, and sat back in his chair with a groan. His gaze drifted to the next paper mountain.

Nope. Lunch first.

He stood, stretching out his cramped muscles, and was just putting on his uniform jacket when his secretary put her head around the door.

"General, there's a Colonel here to see you without an appointment."

"I'm going to lunch, Wendy. Tell him to make an appointment for this afternoon."

"Ah, she says –"

The diminutive woman was cut off abruptly when a slim, pale hand appeared above her head, pushing the door open wider to reveal his wife, Lt. Col. Samantha Carter.

"Oh." He blinked at her, fighting the urge to grin stupidly. "Wendy for future reference, Colonel Carter doesn't need an appointment. Ever."

Wendy looked a little confused, but nodded, and extracted herself from the doorway between the two officers. "Yes sir."

Sam stepped into his office, with an embarrassed little smile. "Sorry sir, I should have called ahead …"

"No, that's ok." He stood awkwardly in front of his desk, hating the dress blue uniforms they wore that prevented all but careful professional conversation. "So you're back from the Prometheus?"

"Since they were beaming us down to the surface from orbit anyway, I asked them to put me in the secure transport location in the Pentagon, rather than the SGC." Sam explained. "I, uh, I have something for you."

She thrust a manila envelope at him nervously, and he raised his eyebrows as he took it.

"What's this?"

"My official request for a transfer."

"Transfer?" He cocked his head. "SG-1?"

"We did talk about it before my temporary reassignment …" Sam trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "It's just, now that I've seen what the Ori and the Priors can do … I have to get back there and help. I talked to Cassie about it too before I left for this mission, and she's ok with it. She's doing much better now."

Jack nodded. He didn't like the idea of Sam being back on the front line on SG-1, but this wasn't a total surprise – they had discussed the possibility – and God knows the SGC needed her there.

"You realise this creates a little bit of a chain of command issue." He said, fingers smoothing over the edges of the envelope.

Sam looked at him with wide eyes. "The President's letter wasn't conditional on me leaving SG-1 …"

He cut her off with an inpatient wave of his hand. "Not between you and me. I'm talking about Mitchell. He's in command of SG-1, and you're the former commanding officer of SG-1. You're both Lieutenant Colonels. If I put you back on SG-1 … you see the problem."

"I think we can make it work." Sam said. "It's not like he hasn't been badgering me to come back since the moment he found out I was gone."

"So who's in command?" Jack asked.

"I suppose, technically, he is, since he's already in command now. But Cam's a good man, and he knows how to take advice. I'm confident he'd defer to me if the situation called for it."

"And you'd be ok with that? Going back to SG-1 effectively as the second-in-command after having spent a year as CO yourself?"

Sam shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not thrilled about it, but that's the way it is. I wouldn't be going back at all if it wasn't for the Ori, but I need to pitch in, and if this is the best way I can do it, then so be it."

Jack nodded. "Ok. If you're sure."

"I am."

"I'll put the transfer through." He cocked his head. "When do you head back to Nevada?"

"I haven't booked a flight yet." She admitted. "This was a bit of a spur of the moment thing."

"Stay tonight?"

"Sure." She smiled.

"Excellent." He grinned back. "Lunch?"

Late that night, Sam was curled against Jack's chest in bed, tense and utterly unable to sleep. She jumped in surprise when he suddenly spoke.

"What's the matter?"

"I thought you were asleep."

He opened his eyes. "I'm awake. What's the matter?"

She sighed, hiding her face in his chest. "I can't stop thinking about Vala."

Jack smirked. "Should I be jealous?"

"Jack." She admonished, swatting him. "It's just – she could be dead, or in danger in the Ori galaxy, and … well, did you ever see her?"

"No. Why?"

Sam stayed silent for a moment. "It might be nothing, I mean I might be reading too much into it or looking for things that aren't there, but … Jack, she looked like Serena. A lot."

Jack shifted under her, twisting to look her in the eye. "Seriously?"

Sam nodded.

"Daniel hates her."

"No, he doesn't." Sam argued. "She drove him nuts, yes, but she also flirted with him a lot, and Teal'c says Daniel was sometimes flirting back. Plus … you should have seen him on the Prometheus after we lost her, he looked really upset about it."

"So you think Vala Mal Doran is the woman Daniel ends up marrying and having a kid with?"

"I think it's possible."

"Not if she's dead."

"She might not be."

"But the alternative to being dead is being lost in a very distant galaxy full of hostiles."

"Yes. Which is why I'm lying awake worrying about it."

Jack sighed. "There's nothing we can do about it though, right?"

"No." Sam acknowledged quietly.

"So … try not to worry about it. What will be, will be." He lay back, and pulled her back against his chest comfortably.

"Since when did you get so philosophical?" Sam teased.

"Since I got a copy of this picture of my own." He said, reaching to his nightstand for their wedding picture – the one the two of them had first seen over five years ago, on their accidental trip to 2034. "It's all working out the way it's supposed to, Sam. Just let it happen."

Sam snorted. "Ok, who are you and what have you done with Jack O'Neill?"

He shushed her and kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep, Carter."

"Yes sir."