Chapter 16
Jack let Sam sleep until 1100 hours Mountain Time. He wanted to give her more time, but knew they needed to be back on the road before her inevitable failure to appear for the negotiations with the Kisqua was discovered. They had one chance to get this right, and if John had done his job, the IOA would be headed toward Chicago by the end of the day. With any luck, he and Sam would be a day's drive in the opposite direction.
They made quick work of wiping down any evidence of their presence from the motel room and piled back into the SUV before heading southwest on back highways. They drove several hours until the sun was beginning to set when they turned south to head toward Omaha.
"We should have heard from Thor by now," Sam's voice broke the comfortable silence that had settled between them over the last couple of hours. She adjusted the sunglasses perched on her nose and let out a deep breath. "If the Nox were going to help us…" she let the sentence fade.
"You know these advanced races of aliens operate on their own time table," Jack replied, trying not to let his own worry show. "The Nox probably had to call some sort of emergency council meeting to discuss our situation."
"Maybe," Sam allowed, but she wasn't convinced. The truck hit a pothole, making it jerk and wobble. Sucking in a deep breath through her teeth, she fought against a wave of nausea that tore through her. Truthfully, she'd been fighting the urge to throw up for the last few hours. When the truck jerked again, Sam knew she was fighting a losing battle.
"Pull over," she said, pressing her knuckles against her mouth.
"What?" Jack cut his eyes over to her without slowing down. "Why?"
"Pull. Over." She gasped out. "Now!" She felt the bile rise in her throat.
Jamming on the break, Jack barely got the SUV stopped before Sam was jumping out of the door. He ran around to her side, wincing as he saw her bent over and vomiting. He felt utterly helpless and guilty as he watched, knowing Sara had suffered terrible nausea during pregnancy, especially whenever she pushed herself too hard.
"Carter," Jack drew her attention as she straightened, and handed her a bottle of water.
"Thanks," Sam accepted it gratefully and rinsed her mouth out before taking a sip. "I'm sorry," she said, giving him an apologetic look.
"You're growing a new life, Carter," he gave her a bemused half-smile, "there's bound to be side effects." He watched as she swayed slightly, her face still pale from fatigue. "Come on," he lightly gripped her forearm to steady her as she climbed back into the vehicle. "Let's see if we can find someplace to stop for the night."
Sam shook her head. "We've only been on the road for six hours. I can handle another four or five."
"You need to rest," Jack told her, climbing back into the driver seat.
"We need to get off-world," she countered. "I can rest later."
"Normally, I'd agree," he eased the truck back onto the two-lane highway, "but without access to Dr. Brightman, we have no way of knowing what's happening to your body."
"I'm pregnant," she grumbled not quite under her breath. "That's what's happening to my body."
Jack bit his tongue and counted to ten. He remembered mood swings were a normal part of pregnancy, but they typically didn't start the very first week. Neither did nausea, come to think of it. Brightman had said Sam appeared to be about five or six weeks along hormonally, what if that rapid rate of progression wasn't just due to the artificial hormones the Kisqua had pumped her full of. What if the pregnancy itself was progressing that rapidly? Jack shoved that fear down and maintained a mask of neutral concern as he turned toward Sam.
"Exactly," he replied calmly, "your body is pulling double-duty. Let's light down for the night and lay low, get some food and rest. If we haven't heard from Thor by the morning, we'll burn rubber until we reach the SGC."
Sam pursed her lips. She wanted to argue, knowing every hour they delayed was another hour the IOA had to find them. But she was tired. Scratch that, she was beyond tired. The few hours she'd slept hadn't even taken the edge off of her fatigue and that wasn't normal. Not for her.
Whatever was happening to her body wasn't something she'd experienced before and, quite frankly, it scared her. Maybe Jack was right and she simply needed food and a longer rest. Sucking in a breath against another wave of nausea rolling through her, she closed her eyes and nodded. All the while praying the little voice inside her head screaming something was terribly wrong didn't know what it was talking about.
"This is completely unacceptable!" Cholti growled as the Tau'ri woman he'd trusted informed him that they had been unable to locate Colonel Carter. "You promised she would be made available to us," his voice dripped with hostility.
"And I intended to honor that promise," Shen snapped at him.
"It was a promise Ms. Xiaoyi was not at liberty to make," Richard Woolsey said, marching into the room, followed by the President and Dr. Jackson. "I believe you were informed as such but chose to ignore both Dr. Jackson and myself."
Cholti said nothing as Shen bristled in front of him. Her carefully constructed outer shell was beginning to show its first cracks.
"May I present to you, the President of the United States, Henry Hayes," Woolsey continued, cutting Shen off before she could say anything. "President Hayes does have the authority to make such promises; however, I doubt he'll be inclined to do so."
"We demand Colonel Carter be brought here at once!" Cholti growled.
"Yes, well," Hayes looked at Cholti with barely restrained ere, "that's going to be a bit of a problem, seeing as how Ms. Xiaoyi here drove her and General O'Neill into hiding. We're looking for them, but they are experts at disappearing. Locating them will take some time."
"Time is something we do not have," Cholti countered.
"Time is all we have," Hayes retorted, "so we might as well sit down and discuss a reasonable solution to our little problem. Unless, of course, you want to blow up the Earth and Colonel Carter along with it."
Cholti sat back in his chair and said nothing for a moment. They had the technology aboard their ships to find her on the surface, but it would take a great deal of time to travel to this planet. Their hyperdrives were not as advanced as they led others to believe, which meant the Kisqua homeworld was a two-week journey away at maximum power. Not that he would disclose that fact to the Tau'ri. To do so would be a sign of weakness. Instead, he appraised this newcomer and chose his next words very carefully.
Jacob Carter was bored. Even the ever-present company provided by Selmak wasn't enough to slice through the dullness penetrating his every breath. He hated stakeouts. He hated cloaked stakeouts even more.
The tel'tak he'd been assigned was an older model, meaning the cloak had inherent flaws. For instance, it really sucked at masking heat signatures, which made him resort to keeping the environmental controls just north of frigid to prevent other ships from discovering his presence. It also meant he couldn't pass the time watching old Bogey and Bacall movies on his smuggled-aboard DVD player.
It's not that bad, Selmak scoffed at his inner grumbling. It could be worse.
"Yeah, how?" Jacob answered out loud simply to fill the deafening silence around him.
We could be back on Netu.
Jacob shuddered. "Don't even joke about that," he grumbled at her.
It was…warmer, she chuckled at her own joke, making Jacob roll his eyes. I could put you into a deep sleep. Again. She offered.
Jacob shook his head. He'd slept too much over the past few days, allowing Selmak to remain alert while he passed the time with sleep. "Thanks, but I think I'll just wait for something exciting to happen."
Jacob, I'm detecting a large ship on our long-range sensors, Selmak interrupted, drawing her host's attention to the control panel behind him.
"It's Asgard," Jacob cocked his head in confusion. They were well into Goa'uld territory with no treaty-protected worlds within several lightyears in any direction.
We're being hailed, Selmak announced two seconds before Thor's voice came over the tel'tek's internal speakers.
~Greetings Jacob Carter and Selmak. I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.~
"Hello, Thor," Jacob responded immediately. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
~Likewise.~ Thor answered as his hologram appeared on the bridge in front of Jacob.
"To what do we owe this pleasure?" Jacob smiled at the little gray alien who was often featured in Sam's recounting of her exploits traveling through the Stargate. Jake knew he owed Thor for saving his daughter on more than one occasion, but then, he also knew Sam had saved Thor's little gray butt, too.
"I have come to request your assistance," Thor said in a serious tone. "Is Selmak familiar with the ones called Kisqua?"
Jacob's head dropped slightly as Selmak took control. "I have heard of them but only in myth and legend," she answered. "They were called the Punished long ago. A fairy tale meant to scare those who would seek the great power."
"They are real."
Selmak cursed before relinquishing control back to Jacob.
"What can we do to help?" Jacob asked, reeling a bit from all of the information about the Kisqua that Selmak was shoving into his consciousness. If everything Selmak knew was true, a Kisqua threat would make everything the Goa'uld and the Replicators had done seem like child's play.
"It is not the Asgard who need your help," Thor told him and Jacob knew, he simply knew, what was coming next. "It is your daughter who seeks to evade them."
Jacob clenched his eyes shut and berated himself for ever wishing for something exciting to happen. Boredom. He'd prefer boredom to this. "Why do they want Sam?" Jacob asked, shoving his fear for her aside. Right now he needed to know the facts and how Thor thought he could help.
"The Kisqua seek to exploit Colonel Carter's unborn child."
Jacob looked at Thor with wide eyes and frowned. "Wait, Sammy, my Sammy is pregnant?" He knew she had recently become engaged to someone but kids—that was a whole other level.
"She is," Thor nodded once, slowly. "Although, it is my understanding that the conception was not of her choosing."
"Are you saying someone did this to my daughter," Jacob's entire body went still at the implications of what Thor was telling him. "Against her will?"
"Indeed, I am," Thor's voice held a note of anger.
Good. At least the Asgard understood the idea of personal violation. Maybe the little guy wouldn't stand in Jacob's way when he murdered whoever did this to her. Of course, he wasn't going to tell Thor that murder was now his main goal. Make that torture then murder. Maybe he could find himself a nice sarcophagus and bring the bastard back to life a couple of times. Would a dick grow back if you cut it off?
Selmak huffed in agreement. She, too, was appalled at the idea that anyone could hurt Sam in this way. Reminding Jacob that the Asgard likely frowned upon cold-blooded murder, she adjusted her host's hormone levels so he could maintain his composure.
"I'll help in any way I can," Jacob told Thor with a steely voice. "I just need to know one thing." He took a deep breath and weighed how to ask who had hurt Sam without sounding like a vengeful father. He settled on the simplest question, ordering Selmak to etch the name into their memory so he'd know whom to kill. "Who is the father?"
"General O'Neill."