Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
July 27, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
“You know, for a top-secret operation that isn’t actually active, the skeleton staff we have on site sure go through a hell of a lot of supplies,” grouses Brigadier General Jack O’Neill.
The lieutenant on the other end of the phone apologizes – again – for the inconvenience and Jack pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a slow breath as he listens to the same argument he’s been listening to for the past ten minutes. When he hears the words ‘requisition forms’ and ‘incorrect signatures’ he rolls his eyes and leans forward, his elbows resting on the desk.
He decides he’s heard enough and begrudgingly agrees to pay the administration staff on Level 4 a visit to try to resolve the issue before the SGA misses out on their weekly shipment of Russet potatoes. He sets the phone down and runs a hand over his face.
“This is so not what I signed up for,” he mutters. He then casts a sidelong glance at the dozen or so file folders that are stacked high in his outbox. With a sigh, he pushes away from his desk and grabs the folders as he makes his way out of his office.
Two birds, one stone, he tells himself as he heads for the elevator because he’ll be damned if he’s going to make this trip to the Admin department again any time soon. He digs out a pen from his pocket and flips open the first folder while he waits for the elevator to arrive; it’s full of request forms for toilet paper, a new Table Tennis table, Jell-O –
Jell-O?
He throws up his hands in frustration.
“Who the hell eats Jell-O in this place?”
The corridor is empty, so he doesn’t receive an answer to his question, but it doesn’t stop him from casting a glance around anyway before he returns his attention to the page.
Jack has been commander of the SGA for over a year now and he is yet to hear of anyone willingly choosing to eat the glasses of Jell-O in the mess. Or maybe they do, he concedes with a frown; it’s not like he makes a habit of eating meals with the people under his command.
The elevator arrives and he steps inside, presses a button and waits for the doors to close. There’s a lurch as the elevator starts to move and the General turns his attention back to the form. He shakes his head. Whatever the situation is with the food, he reminds himself that he doesn’t particularly care. On any given day around the SGA, Jack is happy to leave the more menial paperwork to Walter. He trusts the man to do the job well – and he does – as all Jack usually has to do is read the attached Post-it telling him what the form is about so he can simply sign the page in the appropriate places. But today, unfortunately for Jack, is Walter’s day off which is why the General has found himself unwittingly at the center of a food scandal and now subsequently on his way to the upper levels of Cheyenne Mountain to see a Lieutenant Graham Simmons.
Jack sighs again.
He signs another form before the elevator comes to a stop and he looks up to see he’s only made it to Level 14. He straightens as the doors open to reveal his second-in-command, Colonel George S. Hammond, standing on the other side.
He dips his head in greeting. “George.”
“Jack,” he smiles, as he steps into the elevator.
“What level?”
“I’m actually on my way down to the gate room.”
“Ah,” Jack says lightly. “They playing cards again?”
George nods but Jack simply smirks as he reaches over and presses the button for Level 28 and goes back to reading his paperwork. He isn’t annoyed, nor the tiniest bit surprised, by George’s confirmation. Okay, so technically the airmen on duty should be on duty, but since he’s taken over at Stargate Alliance, Jack’s opinion has been that as nothing happens in the mountain these days – and as long as no problems arise between any of his officers – he’s happy for those under his command to take their breaks however, and whenever, they wish. It isn’t exactly conventional nor reflective of USAF regulations, but Jack will be the first to admit that he’s never been a fan of following protocol.
As he signs off on another form, he can feel George studying him and he turns his head.
“The display on the elevator said it was going up.”
Jack nods, but when the colonel continues to watch him in confusion, he sighs. “I’ve something to do on Level 4,” he offers with a shrug, “but it can wait.”
He sees George’s lips twist before he turns away. “Sign the wrong form again, did we, Jack?”
“This is why I hate being The Man,” he retorts defensively, folding his arms across his chest. “Too much damn paperwork.”
A chuckle escapes the other man at his admission before they both fall into a comfortable silence and it isn’t until the elevator passes Level 19 when George breaks the quiet.
“Have you any plans for this evening?”
“Oh, yeah,” Jack smiled, “big plans – huge. Most of which involve The Simpsons… and beer.”
George laughs again and fully turns to face him. “Why don’t you join us for dinner?”
Jack’s own amusement slowly fades at his friend’s question but he resists the urge to sigh. He appreciates the oft-repeated invitation to join George, his daughter, and two young granddaughters for dinner on a Sunday evening, he really does; but being around kids is still a situation that Jack isn’t yet ready to face. He knows George knows this too, so his second-in-command is – thankfully – never offended when his dinner invitation is always politely, but firmly, rejected.
He is just about to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ once again when the base alarms suddenly ring out.
“What the hell?” Jack mutters.
“The alarms are only to be activated in case of an attack –”
“I know,” Jack interrupts impatiently, although his frustration isn’t directed at George. “Come on, come on,” he adds as he watches the numbers slowly change as the elevator continues down to Level 28. It takes a few more seconds, which feel more like hours, before the elevator stops and the doors slide open. The distinct sound of gunfire and explosions can be heard and Jack throws the folders down as he runs towards the gate room.
“Call for back-up,” he yells to Hammond over his shoulder as he runs around the corner, “and stay here.”
George grabs the nearest wall phone and by the time he relays Jack’s message the weapons’ fire stops. Despite the order, he moves down the corridor and pauses just behind Jack on the threshold of the gate room as he looks around.
He catches the General’s subtle, if slightly angry, signal for him to hold his position, right before he turns his attention away.
There are officers lying dead at the base of the ramp and even for a seasoned officer like Jack O’Neill, he has to force away the nausea. He pulls his gaze away from the dead and towards the gate and notices that it’s still active, which concerns him as he didn’t know the Stargate could stay open if nothing was coming through. There’s also the small fact that there is no way on this Earth that one of his own people dialled the coordinates. But what worries him more are the intruders – one dressed in gold armor and the others in silver – that make their way towards the wormhole with one of the SGA’s female sergeants. He hears George gasp at the sight and a second later, Jack urges him back into the corridor once more before he reaches for the nearest body, grabs a pistol from the holster and aims it at the hostiles.
“I think that’s far enough,” Jack warns.
He vaguely registers the sound of boots pounding against the concrete floor as his back-up finally appears and files into the room behind him. With the support of his officers, he slowly takes a step closer. He then hears the collective sound of guns cocking, but Jack’s gaze never wavers from the threat. Then, without warning, the enemy that’s dressed in gold turns and stares directly at him. His eyes glow brightly before an ornately-decorated protective helmet covers the alien’s face.
Jack gives the order to shoot just before the strangers step through the gate.
When the wormhole disengages and plunges the room back to its normal gray surroundings, it’s George who breaks the silence.
“Dear God,” he whispers in horror.
Swallowing hard, Jack turns and grabs the phone that’s hanging loose against the back wall.
“This is General O’Neill,” he barks. “Get Catherine on the phone – tell her she’s needed on base ASAP.”
Chapter 2: Return to the SGA
Notes:
Thank you for the lovely comments and kudos on the first chapter!
Chapter Text
July 27, 1997
Washington D.C.
Doctor Samantha Carter glances at her watch once more and sighs. She is well aware that getting ready for dinner is a waste of her time. She’s been expecting a phone call all afternoon; the one that tells her he’s sorry for running late, but something’s happened at work and he needs to take a rain check – again.
It’s not like it will be the first time this has happened over the past year, nor will it be the last, she tells herself, but he was due to pick her up fifteen minutes ago and, as of yet, she’s still heard nothing from him.
“Where are you dad?” she breathes into the quiet surroundings of her apartment.
The two of them have been a part of each other’s lives over the past year but Sam wouldn’t necessarily say they have a close relationship. Nevertheless, the lack of communication from her father is not only out-of-character, but also unsettling because the last time he was late to pick someone up–
Sam closes her eyes to block out the memories she has of that day. Even though it’s been sixteen years since her mother’s death, it still hurts. She’s trying to think of something else to replace the stab of grief she now feels when her cell phone rings. She doesn’t bother to check the Caller ID.
“Let me guess,” she says as she sits down on the couch, “something’s come up and you need to cancel.”
There’s a brief pause on the line before a woman’s voice answers.
“You could say that.”
Sam recognizes the voice instantly and straightens but before she can say anything, they continue: “Samantha? It’s Catherine. We – ah – have a situation. I need you on the next flight out to Colorado Springs.”
Sam pulls the phone from her ear and stares at it in disbelief, as if it’s no longer an inanimate object. She hasn’t heard from Doctor Langford in over a year, but even with the distinct lack of information she’s just received, Sam knows exactly what the call is in relation to. She feels her heart skip a beat.
After being unfairly dismissed from Project Giza, Sam has taken a new, possibly unhealthy, obsession in her work; relocating back to Washington D.C. and securing a job as a civilian contractor to the Pentagon. The work however, while sometimes interesting, doesn’t compare to her work regarding the Stargate and it’s left her with a void she’s unsuccessfully been trying to fill, not to mention a yearning for a solution to an entire trail of unanswered questions and unfulfilled dreams.
On more than one occasion over the past fourteen months, she’s found her thoughts dangerously drift back to the project and what became of the men who did go on the first mission. Sam is careful though; when she does start to reminisce, she tends to only let her thoughts reach the point where she could easily hack into the classified reports and learn the details for herself – but she never does. Because despite Sam’s scientific curiosity, her nostalgia and wonder is always quickly replaced by the anger and hurt she continues to harbor towards General West and his officers and she knows those feelings will only discolor anything she chooses to read.
Working in D.C. does have its advantages though as it still manages to keep her in the loop – even if it is in a circumstantial kind of way – as her move to the city saw her path, strangely, cross with her father’s, a two-star General in the United States Air Force.
They have worked together a few times lately, albeit not directly, but Sam knows her reports and recommendations cross his desk and every-so-often he’ll have one of his aides drop by her office with requests as to how the USAF can make their jet fighters faster, bigger, better.
It’s not exactly the role she had envisaged upon moving back to Washington, but it pays the bills – and has brought her and her father back onto speaking terms. Relatively speaking. Because inside of the Pentagon walls, their relationship is more professional than personal, and outside of those same walls, they never discuss their respective classified projects.
Sam doesn’t particularly mind, however. She gets on well with everyone in her department – not to mention her father’s department – and this works in her favor: the staff know her and like her, so they tend to be more relaxed in her company, knowing that she won’t go running to her father every time one of them participates in a little departmental gossip.
So, she hears things.
Usually it’s just names or half-cryptic codewords that leak through the rest of the office noise, but Sam’s been a military brat long enough to know what details to listen for, and she’s heard a few passing references to the Stargate in her time here.
For example, she knows that Ra was killed in the mission and Abydos was subsequently destroyed, but she also knows that the man who was picked to lead the mission – a Colonel Jack O’Neill – had been able to return home before the bomb detonated, saving himself and his men from the same fate as Daniel Jackson. Moreover, she’s mindful of the fact that Jack O’Neill wasn’t expected to survive the trip and yet he did. The USAF has since classed the mission as an achievement, but the people around Sam seem more surprised by the fact that the Colonel actually chose to survive.
The difference in that little detail intrigues her.
But for all the mentions she’s heard while in Washington, the one that piques her interest the most is the one that was uttered from her father’s own lips. It’s the reason Sam knows the gate is now in storage, deep within the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
So, she has more than a sneaking suspicion that her father knows about the Stargate – not to mention her previous involvement in the project – but he’s never broached the subject with her and Sam refuses to be the one to mention it first. Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, especially since the project has ‘officially’ been shut down, but she can’t help wonder why her dad hasn’t confided in her about it. She wonders if it’s because he believes she was also unfairly dismissed from the project and he doesn’t want to stir up bad memories if he was to mention her work. Or, and the more likely option, is that her father also views her dismissal from the project as fair; that she actually wasn’t good enough to join Colonel O’Neill and his men, and so he’s put the whole sorry saga down as another time when she’s failed him as a daughter.
She sighs heavily.
She knows she’s more likely to step through the gate itself than receive an answer to her questions, and she unwittingly finds her resentment start to bubble again, while there’s a knot tightly coiling in her stomach. Sam forces herself to take a deep breath and focus. Right now, she isn’t speaking to her father, or the Air Force. It’s Catherine on the other end of the phone, and whatever opinions General West had towards Sam, she knows that her former mentor has always firmly been in her corner – and she wouldn’t be calling unless it was about something really important.
Just as Sam’s curiosity starts to get the better of her, she hears a tinny voice repeat her name over the phone and she jumps. She closes her eyes as she brings the cell back to her ear.
“Yes, I’m still here. Sorry, Catherine,” she says in a rush.
“We don’t have a lot of time, Sam. If you’re on board, I need you here. Now.”
Sam chews on her bottom lip as she listens to Doctor Langford’s plea. A part of her wants to accept the offer, but the other part of her wonders if it is really worth revisiting the pain and disappointment it’s already caused her: the endless hours she’ll invest in research; the sleepless nights she’ll undoubtedly pull; the expertise she can provide, only for her contribution to be devalued and belittled once more.
“It’s important,” Catherine pleads. “Something – something’s happened. I can’t –”
She hears Catherine takes a deep breath and then apologizes to her again for the secrecy before it’s followed with a promise to “explain everything” once Sam reports to Cheyenne Mountain.
As Sam glances around her small apartment she sighs. It is cold and impersonal and boring. There are a few frames that line the far wall. They contain photographs of her family – her brother, her niece and nephew, her parents on their wedding day – but aside from those, there is absolutely nothing around her to suggest this place, this city, is her home. She doesn’t have many friends and aside from her father she no longer has any other personal ties to keep her in D.C. The one other person she did have… well, she has no idea where he is now. The only proof Sam has of that relationship are the recently faded bruises and a broken engagement. She represses a shudder.
“Catherine,” she begins, “what –”
The rest of her question is interrupted by an alarm in the background of Catherine’s call. It’s quickly followed by the sound of a man’s voice and Sam strains to make out what he’s saying but Catherine talks over him.
“Look, Sam,” the older woman continues, “I have to go but I need an answer.”
Sam rubs at her temple as she vaguely registers Catherine say that the paperwork for her transfer is ready to go. All Sam needs to do is agree to the role and her superiors, of which she’s no doubt her father will be one, will be notified of the changes in her posting, “effective immediately.”
But there’s still something that holds Sam back from answering and she suspects Catherine knows the exact reason for her hesitation when she quietly adds a moment later, “If it helps, General West is no longer involved with the project.”
Suddenly, the reassurance is enough and Sam accepts the invitation to go to Colorado Springs without a second thought.
Chapter 3: SGA vs. The Aliens
Chapter Text
July 27, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
Catherine sets the phone down and, despite the alarm wailing and the heightened levels of fear and panic that currently emanate through the complex, she allows herself a small smile. She pushes herself away from her desk and heads for the elevator so she can update General O’Neill regarding the outcome of her conversation with Sam.
She knows she’s made the right call and she’s even more relieved that Samantha Carter has agreed to return to the newly-renamed, re-established Stargate Program.
She reaches the elevator just as the alarms stop but the silence that follows is deafening and Catherine decides that she finds the lack of noise more unnerving than comforting now. Perhaps, she thinks, it’s because they have been so used to nothing happening at the SGA that a lack of action now seems… wrong.
The Stargate was her father’s life’s work and she’d been determined to keep his legacy alive. It was part of the reason why she had fought so hard to get the program up and running in the first place and subsequently agreed to help lead the scientific element regarding the original mission to Abydos. It was through this role that she’d met Sam and she quickly came to view the bright young woman as a daughter, as opposed to just a colleague. Sam was one of the smartest people she knew – and still knows – and there is no doubt in Catherine’s mind that the doctor had been wrongly and unfairly treated by General West in the past.
In the intervening months since the mission, she’s been tempted to contact Sam a few times but she never got around to it and she feels guilty because even though the project was "officially" shut down last year, Catherine had decided to stick around. She’d also, graciously, been allowed to continue with the odd piece of quiet research on the gate, courtesy of the new base commander, Brigadier General Jack O’Neill.
Following the Abydos mission, Jack’s superior officers were more than a little surprised to see him return home – considering they’d happily sent him to his death – and so, to save face, the Air Force offered him a promotion and a two-year command of the SGA, just so he could then, finally, leave the Air Force: both quietly and with an honorable discharge.
It’s a small price to pay, she thinks as she steps inside the elevator and hits the button for Level 27, if it means Jack can get his life back.
For just as she adores Sam, Catherine has also grown fond of the oft-grouchy General. She respects him, and that feeling is reciprocated, which she appreciates. She’s also well aware that Jack isn’t the same man that she was introduced to a year ago but she hopes with the devastation they witnessed this morning; he won’t slip back into his old ways.
She has a feeling he won’t, but she knows the danger is there.
The danger is always there, the little voice in the back of her head reminds her.
The elevator comes to a stop and when the doors slide open, Catherine waits a moment before she steps into the corridor. She’s more on edge and wary of the threat that now potentially lurks around every corner of the SGA.
She sighs. It’s this newest threat to Earth that has made her finally reach out to Sam. Before today, she had entertained the idea of asking Sam to join her at the SGA as her research assistant, but with no hope of the Stargate project being reinstated, she knew the doctor would have been wasted in the mountain. But now? Now things are different and Catherine’s guilt returns because she wasn’t able to contact Sam under better circumstances.
She makes her way towards Jack’s office in a daze. This morning had been like every other morning over the past year but then the gate had suddenly whirred into life and just a few hours later, everything has changed: the Stargate Program is being officially reinstated, staff are being deployed to the operation; and a message has been sent through the gate to Daniel in the hope of receiving some additional intel.
She’s almost reached the General’s office when she hears raised voices coming from the Briefing Room and she ventures in that direction instead. She hesitates in the doorway when she finds Jack standing at the head of the table, while George, Charles Kawalsky, and Louis Ferretti remain in their seats.
“He looked like Ra, Jack!”
“A Mark III nuclear warhead blew up in his face,” he retorts. “I know that son of a bitch is dead!”
“Then who the hell came through the gate?”
A heavy silence follows Kawalsky’s outburst and from her position by the door, Catherine sees Jack’s jaw tighten. He senses her standing behind him and he turns and waves her into the room. She walks to the far side of the table to take the empty chair next to George.
“What have I missed?”
“Daniel sent a message,” Jack supplies.
The revelation piques Catherine’s interest and she leans her elbows on the table. “And?”
Jack exchanges a look with Kawalsky before he pushes an empty Kleenex box towards her. She glances at both men before she lifts it and studies the writing on the side.
THANKS. SEND MORE.
She isn’t sure how Daniel’s message makes her feel. The five of them now sitting around the briefing table were the only ones who – up until a few hours ago – knew the truth about what had really happened on Abydos. Catherine slowly turns her attention to Jack. She can tell he is trying hard to hide his emotions but his anger at the situation is evident; as is his guilt over the deaths of those under his command.
She doesn’t know what to say; doesn’t think there is anything she can say to make the current state of affairs better, so she takes a risk and unwittingly says what everyone else is thinking.
“I’m assuming burying the Stargate is no longer an option.”
Another set of heavy looks are exchanged and Catherine thinks this is the part of the conversation she’d started to interrupt.
Jack sighs heavily as he sits down. “No, it’s not.”
“It worked before,” she hedges.
“They know what we are now,” he says, tapping the end of his pen against his notepad. “They know how far we’ve come. We’re a threat to them. You’ve read the reports, Catherine,” he continues, finally meeting her eye. “Ra had a ship as big as the great pyramids. They don't need the Stargate to get here anymore; if they really want to, they can do it the old-fashioned way.”
She releases a breath. “So, what do we do?”
“We’re going to use the Stargate to do a little reconnaissance before they decide to come back… again.”
Her eyes widen. “You’re going to Abydos?”
She catches the small glance Jack sends George before he nods in confirmation. “Kawalsky and Ferretti are going back.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m going with them.”
“But Jack –”
“There’s no arguments on this one, Catherine,” he says quietly. “If we’re really going to need Daniel’s help – I’ve got to be the one to convince him to come back with us.”
A sigh escapes her. She knows Jack is right; but it doesn’t mean she has to like, or agree, with the idea. The General’s voice pulls her from her thoughts.
“I’ve given George the order. Once we step through the gate, we’ll have exactly twenty-four hours to either return or send a message through.”
“Another Kleenex box?”
Jack gives her a wry smile. “No,” he says before he turns his head and stares at his second-in-command, all previous humor gone, “otherwise, assume the worst and send a bomb through.”
She sees George nod at the order and Jack glances at each of them again. “Any questions?”
None are forthcoming and Jack drums his fingers against the surface of the table. “Charlie, Louis, go and make a list of what we’ll need. We ship out at zero-six-hundred tomorrow morning.” He then turns back to George. “Make sure the Mark V is on standby. I don’t want to take any chances.”
Catherine remains seated as she watches them go, leaving her and Jack alone. She bites the inside of her cheek as she decides whether or not she should try to discuss the upcoming mission.
“Something on your mind?” the General suddenly asks as he picks up a pen and starts to twirl it between his fingers.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
He meets her eye. “Probably not, but we don’t have a lot of options right now.”
“Jack,” she sighs, “you’re the commander of this base. I don’t think you can just leave.”
“You know, it’s funny,” he mumbles as he leans back in the chair. “The President said the same thing.”
“And yet,” she says carefully, “you’re still going.”
“Yes.”
“What if –”
“It’ll be fine,” he interrupts, “the base is in good hands with George.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
There’s a beat of silence as Jack presses his lips together. He observes Catherine for a moment, then leans forward and rests his elbows on the table.
“I will be fine,” he amends. “I’m not –” He stops abruptly and sighs. “This isn’t the same as before. I’m going to bring Daniel home.”
“I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?”
“You know me so well, Catherine,” he smiles, before he turns serious. “Did you get a hold of your scientist friend?”
She’s momentarily thrown by the non-sequitur until she remembers why she’d sought out the General in the first place. She smiles. “They’re on their way.”
“Good,” Jack nods. “I’m counting on you with this appointment, Catherine, because I don’t have a lot of time for scientists.” He winces and adds: “Present company excluded, of course.”
She chuckles lightly. “They are one of the best, Jack.”
“Alright,” he says getting to his feet. “I’ll sign off the paperwork and make sure Walter submits it before I leave.”
With that, he turns and heads for his office only to pause in the doorway. He looks back at her.
“What did you say their name was again?”
“Carter… Doctor Carter.”
A frown puckers Jack’s brow before it quickly disappears but Catherine doesn’t get a chance to ask him if everything is okay as he offers her a small smile and then enters his office. She slowly gets to her feet and follows him.
“Jack?”
He looks up from the folder he’s reading.
“Stay safe out there.”
He nods once and Catherine knows it’s the closest thing to a promise that he can give her right now.
She turns to make her way back to her own office. She’ll worry about Jack and his team until they are back safely and she needs to prepare for Sam’s arrival; but her mind is still racing as to the earlier attack on the SGA and what the next few days will have in store for everyone.
Whatever it turns out to be, she has a gut feeling that this is only the beginning of a journey none of them are quite ready for.
Chapter 4: An Overdue Reunion
Chapter Text
July 28, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
Sam has only been at Cheyenne Mountain for an hour and already she has lost count of the number of forms she’s had to sign: non-disclosure agreements, permission slips, disclaimers, issues surrounding national security… the list goes on and considering the Stargate Program is meant to be a top-secret project, she isn’t quite sure what they actually do with the paperwork.
She’s thankful for small mercies, however, as her previous involvement with the Stargate means that – for now – she doesn’t have to fill out every single form the United States Air Force has in their inventory.
Another thirty minutes of signing forms goes by before the Lieutenant who has been Sam’s appointed shadow for the morning leads them out of the small room and towards an awaiting elevator. Sam sighs as she steps inside; she’s tired, having uprooted her entire life again overnight, and also apprehensive as she still has no idea what she’s signed up for. But, despite the reservations that linger, she also desperately wants to see Catherine again and get to work.
As they descend further into the depths of the facility, Sam feels the floor and the walls around her shake and she tenses.
“What was that?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the Lieutenant says. “Doctor Langford will explain everything to you shortly.”
Sam nods, but refrains from saying anything else. She’s still in the dark regarding the “situation” Catherine referred to during their all-too-brief phone call yesterday, but instinct tells her it isn’t good news. But she also feels that whatever has happened, she might be able to make a difference here: to have the chance to be a part of a project again and do something good.
There’s a cheery ‘ding’ from the elevator as it comes to a stop and it pulls Sam from her musings. When the doors slide open, she follows Lieutenant Simmons into the corridor and immediately catches a glimpse of movement to her left. She turns to see Catherine approaching and Sam smiles as the older woman gathers her into her arms and whispers, “I’m so glad you could make it.”
Sam is glad too.
For the first time since her arrival at the SGA, her nerves lessen. She’s happy to see a familiar face and the genuine warmth and enthusiasm emanating from Doctor Langford is infectious. It gives Sam the reassurance that this is the best career decision she’s ever going to make.
“I can take it from here Graham, thank you,” Catherine smiles before she waves for Sam to follow her.
Sam nods her thanks at the Lieutenant, ignoring how bashful he now appears, and turns on her heel to catch up with her former mentor. She idly lets her gaze run over the gray concrete walls and the different officers she passes as she makes her way through the labyrinth of corridors.
“How’s Jonas?”
The question momentarily throws Sam but she keeps her voice, and expression, neutral. “I… wouldn’t know.”
Catherine doesn’t stop walking, but she does turn to look at her, a slight frown on her face, before she returns her attention to where she’s going.
“I’m sorry, Samantha,” she says softly as they turn another corner.
“Don’t be,” she finds herself saying.
“What happened?”
“He –” Sam hesitates, then settles for, “he’d changed.”
The older woman doesn’t say another word, and Sam isn’t quite sure what else she wants to say herself, so she’s content to just stay silent. A few moments later, Catherine veers left into a large open-space room and a quick look around lets Sam know that it’s the doctor’s office. She takes the seat Catherine gestures to and waits until she is also seated.
“I owe you an apology, Sam.” There’s a brief pause before Catherine adds, “for all of the secrecy.”
Sam suspects that isn’t what she was originally planning to say but, deciding that now probably isn’t the time to get into the issue, Sam forces a smile and casts another look around the room.
“So,” she says, “why am I here?”
“Yesterday, a group of hostile aliens came through the Stargate. They killed four of our people and kidnapped another.”
“Oh, my god,” Sam mumbles. “Who –”
“We don’t know,” Catherine interrupts with a sigh. “Have you read the initial report? From last year’s mission?”
Sam shakes her head. “But I know some of the details; Ra was killed and Abydos was destroyed,” she adds when Catherine continues to stare.
“Well,” she says, “there’s something you need to know.”
Sam shifts imperceptibly forward in her chair.
“Abydos was never destroyed.”
“What?”
“Jack did detonate the bomb,” Catherine continues, “and Ra was killed; but it was aboard his spacecraft.”
Sam’s frown deepens. “I don’t understand.”
“Ra’s ship was in orbit above the planet at the time. Neither the gate nor anything else on the planet was destroyed. Daniel Jackson is alive and living with the people on Abydos.”
Sam’s jaw goes slack. “You’re kidding?”
“The men determined the people of Abydos were no threat to us, and deserved to be left alone.”
“The men?” Sam questions.
“Those who went on the first mission,” Catherine clarifies.
Sam bristles slightly, but doesn’t push for details. She has so many questions for her friend but she also wants nothing more than to read the mission reports for herself first; to read in between the lines at the details that she now knows aren’t there, but before she can ask for access to the folders, Catherine says: “Ra is dead – of that, Jack is certain, but it was a Goa’uld that launched the attack on the base.”
“Well, if it wasn’t Ra –” Sam takes a breath as she meets Catherine’s eye, “then who the hell came through the gate?”
“And more importantly –”
“How many more are out there?”
As Catherine nods at the question, Sam leans back in her chair and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. She wasn’t fully sure what she was expecting to hear from the woman sitting opposite her, but now that Sam is here, she realizes with startling clarity that this is the last thing that would have been on her list.
“After yesterday’s attack,” Catherine explains quietly, “Jack sent a message to Daniel. He responded, so a decision was made to send a team back to Abydos.”
Sam’s gaze snaps to hers. “You’re sending people through the Stargate?”
“Not quite.” Catherine grimaces and then sighs. “It’s just reconnaissance at this point.”
“So,” she says carefully, “that’s not why I’m here?”
There’s the briefest of pauses and Sam has to give Catherine credit when she doesn’t look away as she answers. “No. I’m sorry, Sam.”
Truthfully, she knows her chances of going through the gate are virtually zero, but she still can’t quite quell her disappointment.
“When does the team leave?” she asks instead.
“They left fifteen minutes ago.”
Sam leans back in her chair again and lets out a breath. She was so close to experiencing the gate in action again, only to miss out – again. She closes her eyes in disappointment. Something then clicks in her mind and she huffs out a laugh.
“Of course,” she thinks, “that’s what the shaking was.”
Catherine looks at her strangely, and Sam realizes she’s spoken aloud.
“Uh, I was in the elevator,” she offers, “and everything suddenly started to shake.”
“Ah,” Catherine says with a nod and a wistful smile, “we’re hoping to fix that.” Sam cants her head as she adds: “The shaking you experienced was the Stargate powering up and the wormhole to Abydos being established. The team are hoping Daniel can provide them with more information as to what happened – or help find those responsible.”
“Do they think Daniel was involved?”
“No,” she says. “I don’t think so.”
“How can they be so sure?”
The corner of Catherine’s lips turn upwards and she reaches behind her before she presents Sam with an empty, but very dusty, Kleenex box. She eyes it warily for a moment, then takes it and studies it closely. The words ‘THANKS SEND MORE’ catch her attention.
“That was Daniel’s message,” Catherine says and Sam glances at her. “It was good enough for Jack to decide it was safe to return to the planet.”
The young doctor resists the urge to laugh or roll her eyes, but some of her disbelief must still show on her face because Catherine’s smile then widens. She folds her arms and leans them on the table.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” she promises, “but I trust Jack’s judgment on this – even if others don’t. He wouldn’t have risked going back if he had any doubts that it was unsafe.”
Sam feels herself nod in agreement, but she has no idea why Catherine is telling her any of this – and simultaneously also not telling her anything. She decides to bite the bullet.
“Catherine,” she sighs.
“I know you have mixed feelings about being recalled to the project,” the older woman interrupts gently, “and for that, I’m sorry, but I am glad you’re here. We all are.”
“We?” She repeats weakly.
Catherine ignores her question. “You are one of the brightest minds I’ve ever come across, Samantha, not to mention that you are still the foremost expert on the Stargate. I know that if anyone is going to make a difference here, it’s you.”
The praise makes Sam uncomfortable and she shifts in her seat. “I still don’t know what I’m doing here, Catherine,” she says with uncertainty.
“We don’t know if, or when, another enemy might walk through the Stargate. This base – it’s no longer secure and we need to take the precautions we can in order to stop another attack.”
Sam’s stomach twists. She watches Catherine shrewdly for a moment before she folds her hands and leans forward.
“Let me guess,” she says wryly, “that’s where I come in.”
“We need your help, Sam,” she stresses.
“What do you need me to do?”
“There’s a lot that needs to be done,” Catherine admits slowly before she takes a deep breath. “But first, we need you to design a shield for the Stargate.”
Chapter 5: Uncle George
Chapter Text
July 28, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
Twenty-four hours.
Sam has been given just twenty-four hours to produce a shield for the Stargate; a piece of alien technology that – despite being the foremost expert on – she is still to see in action. She has yet to see her theories morph into reality but she also has no idea as to the potential dangers they have now opened themselves to by using the gate.
After their conversation, Catherine had taken Sam down to Level 28 to see the gate up close again before they returned to the lab to start working. Sam, however, had decided to start her research by finally reading the reports from the first mission to Abydos and once Catherine had told her that no reports were off-limits as she had been given the highest-level of clearance possible, Sam decided she might as well make the most of it. In the couple of hours that’s followed, she’s absorbed every other piece of information she has been able to get her hands on.
She’s now read the reports numerous times and she is realizing that knowing about something and actually knowing about it are two very different things. It’s why, in between her sketches and theories and calculations for the protective barrier that’s needed for the Stargate, Sam finds herself going back and re-reading the mission reports.
Or, to be more precise, one report in particular: Colonel Jack O’Neill’s.
There’s something about it, something about the man, that Sam can’t put her finger on and it makes her want to know every single detail of his time on Abydos. She subsequently also wants to get to know him. He’s an enigma and – being the scientist that she is – Sam finds herself needing to solve the puzzle he’s unknowingly presented her: what he was really thinking on the mission, what his motives were at the time, how different he is now compared to the man she’s heard whisperings from a year ago...
She shakes her head and tries to focus on the work, but it doesn’t come easily. She has practically memorized his report from the first mission and she now believes that everything she’s been involved with – including her move to Washington – has been helping her to get to this point. She feels like she’s been preparing for this her whole life.
The sound of drilling and hammering on metal abruptly cuts through Sam’s thoughts and she looks up at the Stargate. It’s the stark reminder she needs in order to concentrate and remember why she’s really here. She glances at her watch and sighs; her twenty-four hours are quickly counting down.
She isn’t confident that the timeframe is sufficient, but it has to be. The team, alongside Daniel Jackson, are due to return in the early hours of tomorrow morning and Sam will be damned if the iris isn’t installed and ready before they dial home. She’s drawn the sketches, finished the math and deduced which plan is most likely to succeed and now she finds herself elbow deep in pieces of titanium and blowtorches and the stale smell of sweat. It’s not exactly the introduction to the Program she’s imagined, but she is happy to do whatever it takes to prove her worth to those in charge and cement her place within the operation.
“Samantha!”
She turns when she hears her name and is unable to hide her surprise as George Hammond approaches her with a smile on his face and his arms open wide. Sam quickly sets down her clipboard and finds his embrace.
“Uncle George,” she murmurs fondly.
He gives her a squeeze before he pulls back. “Catherine told me you had arrived.”
“This morning,” she nods, then hesitates. “I… didn’t know you were stationed here – sir,” she adds awkwardly, as she glances around the gate room and tries to ignore the curious looks she’s now receiving from those around her.
George sighs heavily and gestures for her to follow him into the corridor. Sam waits until they are out of earshot from everyone, but before she can say anything, George breaks the silence.
“I was transferred to Cheyenne over a year ago,” he says, “after the first Abydos mission.”
“Oh.” Sam frowns. She knows George had taken some time away from work to be with his wife as she battled cancer, but following Mary’s death she thought her godfather had requested retirement. She didn’t realize that he had returned to active duty – and her father had never said. “I had no idea,” she adds quietly.
“It’s been a quiet posting,” he continues, then his expression turns sombre, “until yesterday.”
Sam takes a deep breath and straightens. “Catherine explained the situation – I’m sorry for the loss of your officers.”
He nodded at her apology, then cleared his throat. “Jack’s taken the losses harder than any of us – which is understandable for many reasons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Well,” he says, “he’s the Commanding Officer of the SGA so –”
“Wait,” Sam swallows hard as she interrupts, “you’re not in charge?”
George suddenly chuckles and the ease that had settled in Sam’s stomach is suddenly upended over the discovery that she might actually not be working for her godfather.
“No, thankfully,” he says with a shake of his head, “Jack’s the one in charge. I’m his second-in-command.”
“Jack?”
Her confusion must still show however and George gives her an understanding smile. “General Jack O’Neill.”
“I see,” Sam answers. She knows who Jack is but she’s still coming to terms with the fact that Catherine left this very important detail out of their earlier conversation and she can’t help but wonder why. She shuffles from one foot to the other as she decides whether or not she should ask what the General is really like, when George gestures towards the gate room.
“How are things going in there?”
She follows his gaze and shrugs. “As best as they can right now,” she admits, “but I’m still not sure if this will even work.”
A hand rests on her upper arm, gentle but firm, and Sam looks up to find George looking at her. His gaze is strong, but there’s a soft smile that plays around his lips.
“If you’re behind this project,” he offers quietly, “it’ll work, Sam.”
“I hope you’re right,” she sighs as she lets her attention focus back on the flurry of activity around the Stargate. Suddenly, there’s a bang then an echoing clang as metal hits concrete. It’s quickly followed by a yelp and then a curse and Sam and George enter the gate room to find Siler hopping around on his left foot.
“I’m fine,” he says between clenched teeth. “I’m fine.”
“You better head up to the infirmary just to make sure, Sergeant,” George suggests as he signals for one of the nearby officers to assist.
Sam watches them go and smiles. She likes Siler and in the few hours that they’ve known each other, they work well together and without complaint. They can bounce ideas off one another and quickly come to an agreement as to the best way to approach a situation. However, she’s also discovered that the technician is very accident prone.
She feels a light pressure on her elbow and she turns her focus back to her honorary uncle.
“So,” he smiles as he gestures towards the gate, “tell me about this iris.”
“Yes, sir.” She reaches down to grab her clipboard and shows him one of the sketches which demonstrates the individual elements or ‘petals’ of the proposed shield.
“The iris will sit less than three micrometers from the event horizon,” Sam explains. “This will prevent most forms of matter from properly reintegrating.”
“So, anything coming through the wormhole…”
“If the iris is closed, will be destroyed,” she nods, understanding his unspoken query.
She waits for the colonel to digest the news but she already knows what his next question is going to be.
“How will we know when it’s our own people out there?”
Sam flips through the sheets of paper until she finds the one she wants.
“There,” she points to a series of calculations and she sees George’s eyebrows climb up his forehead. With a smile, she rests a hand on his arm in reassurance. “Despite matter not being able to reintegrate on this side, certain signals – such as radio signals – should still be able to penetrate the iris. I believe I can create a program that can translate the signal back to us, thereby identifying who’s on the other side of the gate. For now, though,” she sighs, “the iris takes priority. I can work on the rest once I know the barrier works.”
“It’ll work,” George nods confidently and it helps to push Sam’s doubts aside. “Well,” he adds with a smile, “I’ve taken up enough of your time this afternoon – and I still have work to do before the team arrives home, so I will check in with you again later.” He pauses. “It’s really good to see you.”
“You too, uncle George,” she smiles.
She watches him leave but as he reaches the threshold, he turns.
“Oh, and Sam?” She watches as the colonel glances at the Stargate and then her before an inscrutable look crosses his face. “You’re going to do great but don’t work yourself into the ground, OK? Things are different here.”
His words play over in her mind long after they start to install the iris.
Chapter 6: Return from Abydos
Notes:
So, it’s been a while… and it may take me a bit to get the character's voices right again.
Chapter Text
July 29, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
It just so happens that the first time their paths cross, they don’t actually meet.
The team, led by Sam, are able to install the iris with just under an hour left to their deadline. It has been tested and everything appears to be fine but Sam isn’t fully naïve; she knows the real proof will be when General O’Neill and his men dial home. For the moment, however, she feels more confident that her ideas are going to work and will help to keep them safe.
From her vantage point in the control room, Sam glances down to the gate room and observes the eclectic group of people who’ve been thrown together in order to finish the project. She feels a sense of pride and she smiles when Siler meets her eye through the protective glass and signals that they’ve completed their final checks. When they gather up the rest of their tools and exit the room, Sam breathes a sigh of relief but she has no time to relax as everything around her begins to shake and she has to hold onto the back of a chair. A couple of seconds later, the inner ring of the Stargate starts to turn.
“We’ve got company,” George suddenly mutters to her right and she glances over as he reaches for the nearest phone and orders the defense teams to standby.
There are orders relayed via the tannoy system and the doors to the gate room slide closed as the teams gather at the base of the ramp, but it all fades into the background for Sam as her attention remains focused on the Stargate. The way the inner ring moves; the steam that escapes the mechanisms on the side of the device; how the chevrons light up when they lock into place – and when the wormhole establishes and spits out its vortex before settling back into a shimmering pool of vertical liquid, she audibly gasps. She’s captivated by its beauty and finds herself trying to calculate the energy the gate must release in order to create a stable wormhole.
Astronomical.
It’s the first word that springs to mind and it feels almost overwhelming to finally, finally see the Stargate in action.
But her idealism is shattered when moments later a group of men burst through the event horizon. Two of them pull another down the ramp, while the others drag another wounded team member away from the gate and while Sam is horrified by the scene that’s unfolding before her, she can’t look away. She feels George leave her side as one of the younger men yells for a medic and she hears Catherine follow the order but she can’t do anything to help yet. She has to wait for her own order.
It takes a few seconds, then George turns and meets her eye.
“Close the iris,” he calls. “Close the iris!”
Without hesitation, Sam slams the palm of her hand down onto the sensor and watches with bated breath as the iris smoothly closes over the event horizon. The movement surprises one of the men in particular and he spins around in surprise, his gun at the ready. He’s still on edge, even when the gate shuts down and Sam leans forward and grabs the microphone.
“Wormhole disengaged.”
Sam observes the man for a few moments longer as he returns his attention to George. She can’t make out their conversation but she has a pretty good idea that it involves the iris – especially when her godfather then turns and gestures in her direction. Before she can get a better look at him, however, Catherine places a hand on her arm and Sam turns to look at her.
“You did it, Samantha,” she whispers as she quickly pulls her into a hug.
Sam returns the hug and a relieved chuckle escapes her. “It worked. It worked.”
“I never doubted you,” Catherine says, before she continues. “We’ll have to meet with George and Jack about this, but let them see to their men first.”
Sam nods and follows her gaze as the injured are taken to the infirmary.
“Come on,” she adds softly, “let’s get some coffee. There’s nothing else we can do right now.”
Wordlessly, Sam accepts her mentors offer but as she turns and starts to leave, she misses the moment General O’Neill finally looks up at the control room, his eyes briefly meeting Catherine’s before he’s left staring uncertainly at an empty space.
Sam tiredly massages her temples before she takes once final glance around Catherine’s lab and decides to call it a night.
Their plans for coffee were interrupted before they really started when George appeared and said the General required Catherine’s presence for a post-mission briefing. But even though she’d received the appropriate security clearance and was heavily involved in the instalation of the iris, Sam’s presence hadn’t been requested and she’d tried not to let her exclusion – nor the looks Catherine and George exchanged – bother her as much as it did.
But that had been hours ago and Sam’s found herself hiding away ever since. She knows she could have taken a walk around the base but she doesn’t yet feel comfortable enough to do that on her own, so she used the time alone to go over her notes and calculations. She was also able to read through Catherine’s notes again regarding the Stargate and using these – plus the experience of finally seeing the gate in action – to rethink everything she’s previously thought she’s known regarding the technology. Before she can stop herself, Sam is rewriting sections of her work; reviewing the math and coming up with ways that could save them valuable resources, such as time and people’s lives, by making the various programs more efficient. Ideally, she wants to begin with the dialing program, but she knows that in order to do that, she needs to present – and defend – her arguments. And she can’t do that until she’s spoken to Catherine and run the ideas by her.
Right now, however, she needs to sleep. She also needs to unpack and pulls a face at the thought but she does need to go back to the hotel, shower and change.
With her decision made, she grabs a blank piece of paper and starts to write a note for Catherine, explaining that she will be back on base early in the morning. She’s almost finished when the woman herself appears in the doorway and makes her way around to the far side of the desk.
“Catherine,” she smiles. “I was just –”
“You should have gone home hours ago, Samantha.” Sam ducks her chin slightly. “I’m sorry I left you – again – without much of an explanation,” she adds.
“It’s fine,” she shrugs, but can’t quite meet her eye. “I guess it’s something I should get used to.”
Catherine shakes her head and Sam catches the movement out of the corner of her eye.
“Jack –” the older woman sighs, then continues. “The mission didn’t quite go to plan.”
Sam nods. Despite keeping to herself, she’d heard a few details filter through over the last few hours and she knew that the team had lost a couple of men in a firefight with the enemy; but the injured who had made it home were all expected to make a full recovery.
“After we discussed the mission and what should happen next, he asked about the iris. I explained the idea behind it – leaving out most of the science,” she smirks and Sam’s brow furrows in confusion, “but he’s convinced that it will help keep his people safe from any future threats. He was impressed,” she adds after a beat.
“Oh.” Unwittingly, Sam feels herself blush at the relayed compliment.
“He wants to meet you.”
Her gaze snaps to Catherine. “I – uh – do I – when does he – now?”
She winces but is thankful that if Catherine picks up on her sudden awkwardness she doesn’t comment.
“Well, I had told him that you’d probably gone back to your hotel for the evening,” she chides gently, “but I should have known better.”
Before Sam can argue that she was about to leave, Catherine chuckles. “But I also know Jack – and he’ll still be here too.”
Sam purses her lips. “So?”
“Give me a couple of minutes,” the other woman smiles as she starts to move around her lab and Sam feels the need to fill the silence and calm her growing nerves.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to overhaul our dialing program,” she says, “to make it better.”
Catherine looks at her and smiles. “Good.”
“I wanted to run a few ideas by you.”
“Of course,” she nods, “but it can wait for now.”
“Oh. Sure.” She tries to think of something else to talk but then Catherine’s gaze falls on the piece of paper from earlier.
“What’s this?”
“I was about to leave,” Sam insists, “but I didn’t want to go without saying goodbye.”
Catherine watches her shrewdly for a moment. “You’re coming back tomorrow though, aren’t you?”
“I think so,” Sam nods. “If I’m still needed. I know I can –”
“Sweetheart,” Catherine interrupts gently, “after your work today, I can promise you this – Jack won’t be letting you go without a fight.”
She isn’t sure how to take the statement but before she has any more time to dwell on what her mentor means, Catherine balls up the piece of paper and throws it in the trash can.
“I know you’re tired, Sam,” she says, “but I’ll introduce you to Jack now. It’ll only take a few minutes, I promise.”
“OK,” she relents.
“Great! Follow me,” Catherine smiles as she turns on her heel and disappears around the corner.
Sam sighs, but nods in agreement. She sets her purse back down onto the lab bench and takes a deep breath. She tells herself that she can do this.
Chapter Text
July 29, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
General O’Neill isn’t in his office when they arrive but there are dozens of other people occupying the briefing room even though no meeting is taking place, and as the two women make their way through the gathering, Sam picks up enough from the various conversations taking place around her to learn that the ‘meeting’ is really more of an impromptu ‘get to know your colleagues’ affair that was born out of the need of humans standing around, waiting on a fresh pot of coffee brewing.
Catherine leaves her alone for a few minutes to try and locate Jack one final time for the night, so Sam moves away from the group and takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. She can’t explain why she’s nervous; for all intents and purposes, General O'Neill sounds nothing like General West with regards to how he runs the Stargate Program and how he treats his staff, but Sam has also been around enough men, never mind Air Force personnel, who’ve been intimidated by her intelligence to know that the general’s behavior towards others means nothing where she’s concerned until she meets him for herself.
She knows that he was allegedly impressed by the iris and that he – also allegedly – wants to meet her, but Sam is a civilian in the middle of a top-secret military operation; she’s a scientist in a world of gunfire and battles; and she’s still a woman in what very much remains a man’s world and while she can stand up for herself, she’s unsure as to whether she will be accepted into the SGA by anyone other than Catherine, her godfather, and Sergeant Siler.
She tries not to let her doubts and insecurities win as she takes another glance around the room. There’s a nervous excitement in the air that is impossible to ignore. It’s electric and Sam feels the buzz as she continues to observe those around her; but she also senses the fear. Everyone in the room may be among some of the best individuals the world has to offer, but none of them have come across anything like this before. They are flying by the seat of their pants with no idea as to what they’ve really let themselves in for by signing up to the Program.
She moves to the large windows that overlook the gate room, but doesn’t focus on the gate. Instead, she turns her back to it and leans against the glass, strangely fascinated studying the men and women, civilians and military personnel, all crowded together trying to establish some form of common ground and Sam’s struck with the notion that it feels like a bizarre faculty meeting – either that, or the strangest mass blind date she’s ever been on. She resists the urge to laugh at the analogy, only for the fact that she can’t quite grasp the concept that she’s here. She’s part of the weirdness.
Suddenly, her skin starts to tingle and she feels someone’s eyes on her. She quickly scans the room. Everyone is preoccupied with their own conversations, but she can’t shake the sensation. Catherine’s voice then interrupts her thoughts.
“All right everyone, let’s clear the room. If you’re not supposed to be working right now, take it to the Mess Hall instead.” Her tone is firm, but then a smile breaks through. “Jack assures me there’s cake.”
This declaration seems to be the deciding factor they need to follow the order and the mention of cake makes Sam’s stomach growl loudly, letting her know that it has been hours since she last ate.
“Catherine, I –”
She stops when she discovers her former mentor is retreating to the small office that’s adjoining the briefing room and resists the urge to throw her arms in the air in frustration when the door closes. She briefly closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. After a few seconds, she thinks about following Catherine only to notice someone standing off to her left, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He’s wearing glasses and sporting floppy brown hair and Sam guesses he is around her age. He then turns slightly and it takes her only a second to realize who it is. She can’t help but move towards him.
“Doctor Jackson?”
His head pops up at the address and he stares at her in confusion but accepts her outstretched hand. As she introduces herself, he smiles politely but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes and a heavy silence soon falls.
“I, um, I’m sorry the mission didn’t – didn’t go well.”
Sam winces at her bluntness as another small, sad smile escapes Daniel and he sits down in one of the high-backed leather chairs. He gestures for her to join him.
“It’s all my fault,” he sighs.
“With all due respect Doctor Jackson, you had no idea Abydos –” She trails off as the archaeologist shakes his head.
“I should have left the barricade up.”
Sam frowns at his admission. “I don’t understand.”
He glances around before he meets her eye and Sam can see that among the grief and helplessness and exhaustion that mars his expression, she also finds doubt and even though Daniel has been through the Stargate and lived on another planet, she’s reminded that the two of them are alike in some ways. He is still just a civilian; a civilian whose world has been torn inside out and fallen apart. Sam isn’t sure what she can say to make things better, but then her companion starts to talk.
She listens as he unwittingly confirms what she already knows about the first mission to Abydos. She smiles when he tells her of Sha’re and Skaara and how they welcomed him into their family. She grieves with him while he reveals just how badly the last mission finished. She tries to comfort him when he finally breaks down.
In the end, she doesn’t know what she says to Daniel – or if he is even listening – but it allows her to regain some control of her emotions and gives him the time he needs to regain his composure.
“I’m sorry,” he finally says, “you didn’t need to hear any of that.”
“It’s okay,” she smiles. “I wish there was something I could do to help.”
“You’ve already helped,” he says seriously before a self-deprecating chuckle escapes. “Although I’m guessing counselor isn’t part of your job description.”
It’s Sam’s turn to chuckle.
“So, what are you doing here?” Daniel asks a moment later, seemingly keen to shift the attention away from himself.
She gestures in the direction of the windows.
“I was studying the gate technology for two years before you made it work, Doctor Jackson, and before you and General O’Neill went through.”
“You weren’t here when we established a connection,” he frowns. “I don’t remember seeing you around.”
“No. I might be the foremost expert on the Stargate, but the Air Force had other ideas,” Sam smiles ruefully.
He grunts noncommittally, then gives her a shrewd look. “You’re not going through the gate now either.”
It’s a statement, more than a question, but Sam answers anyway. “No, I’m not.”
“So, I’ll ask again. What are you doing here?”
She shrugs because she’s been asking herself the same question on and off over the past forty-eight hours. “Catherine brought be back. She thought I could help.”
“Yeah, Catherine’s good at that,” he smiles fondly, and Sam’s confusion must show because he adds, “she’s the reason I got involved in the first place – and probably the reason as to why Jack is still here.”
The revelation is only slightly surprising to Sam. She knows Catherine; knows her well and over the years Sam has benefited from having her as a mentor, friend and confidant. She also appreciated the woman’s motherly tendencies and how she was there for Sam if she ever needed her, but she is left wondering about the impact Catherine’s had on these men’s lives too and files the thought away for a later time.
“She’s right though,” Daniel says as he studies her, “maybe you can help.”
Sam nods earnestly. “Anything I can do.”
He pushes his glasses up his nose and leans forward, his elbows resting on the table.
“When I was on Abydos I started exploring – just the area around the town and the pyramid at first. Then, after about a month, I found this place inside the pyramid.”
Sam straightens in her chair as Daniel starts to warm to his subject.
“I tried to translate the markings I found but I quickly realised that it didn’t say anything.”
“It didn’t say anything?” she frowns.
“Well, uh, actually it was sort of a chart. More of a… map.”
“Of?”
“Well, I hadn’t been able to analyze all of it. It would have taken my whole life,” he adds quietly.
“What was it a map of?”
“I have video I can show you,” he says, “but the cartouches seemed to be separated clearly into groupings. Each grouping was attached to the others with a series of lines and each grouping of glyphs contained seven symbols. So, you can see where this is going, of course.”
Sam’s eyes widen at the possibilities as Daniel continues.
“All of the symbols were on the Stargate in the Abydos chamber. I'd also managed to chart some of them in the Abydos night sky, or at least pretty close. Doctor Carter, I think it was a map of a vast network of Stargates. Stargates that are – are all over the galaxy.”
“Uh, I don't think that can be, Doctor.”
“Why not?” he blinks.
“Well, because after Colonel O'Neill and his team came back, my team tried hundreds of symbol permutations using Earth as the point of origin, and it never worked.”
“I tried the same on Abydos and it didn't work either. I figured the destinations I tried were either destroyed or buried but, um, I mean some of them somewhere must still exist?”
“I don't think so.”
“Then where did your Ra lookalike come from?”
“Uh –"
“Look, Doctor Carter, I don't pretend to know anything about astrophysics but couldn't the planets change? I mean, uh, drift apart or something like that, to throw the map off?”
And just like that, the pieces of a puzzle start to click together and she smiles. “I knew I'd like you.”
“You mean… I’m right?”
“According to the expanding universe model, all bodies in the universe are constantly moving further apart –”
“– so, in the thousands of years since the Stargate was built –”
“– all the coordinates could have changed.”
Daniel frowns. “But why does it still work between Abydos and Earth?”
Sam purses her lips. “Abydos is probably the closest planet in the network to Earth. I mean the closer they are, the less the difference in relative position due to expansion – the further away, the greater the difference. In a few thousand more years, it won't work between Earth and Abydos either.”
“Unless you can adjust for the displacement,” he says suddenly as he jumps to his feet and Sam follows.
“If you have a record of this map as a base, that should be easy. All we have to do is correct for Doppler's Shift, then I should be able to arrive at a computer model that can predict the adjustments necessary to get the gate working again.”
“So, the Stargate can go other places?”
Sam nods excitedly, then pauses in horror as the realization of their discovery hits home. “Oh, my god,” she whispers and her gaze drifts down to the Stargate below. “The aliens could have come from anywhere.”
“Where do we even begin to look?”
She takes his question for what it is and decides not to give him the probabilities. Instead, she turns to face him and with renewed determination, says, “We’ll get them back.”
Sam has never been one to give people false hope but there’s something about Daniel that makes her want her words to be true and she believes that with his help they might be able to do what she says. They will find their people. She releases a breath when Daniel nods and, for the first time since they’ve met, offers her a smile not tinged with sadness. Yet she doesn’t want to get ahead of herself, so she adds: “For now, though, you need to rest, Doctor Jackson.”
“Oh,” he says with a wave of his hand, “it’s Daniel.”
“In that case, you can call me Sam… but you still need rest.”
He laughs, then nods in agreement. “Fine, Sam. With all due respect, you look like you could do with some rest too.”
Despite herself, Sam chuckles. “I’m just waiting for Catherine to let me go.”
“Huh,” he says. “Well, I’m actually waiting for Jack. He’s offered to let me stay at his for the night, rather than here.”
“That’s… a nice thing for him to do.”
“Yeah,” he replies carefully. “Jack – he’s… different.”
“What do you mean?” Sam presses a moment later but Daniel shakes his head, then regards her for a moment.
“Nothing. It’s... nothing. You haven’t met him yet, have you?”
“Who haven’t we met?” asks Catherine as she appears and crosses the briefing room to join them.
“Jack.”
Catherine smiles. “Ah.”
Sam's nerves start to return as she glances between the two of them to see them sharing identical smiles and she feels self-conscious. “Am I missing something?”
Seeing her expression, Catherine smiles and places a hand on her arm. “Sam hasn’t had the pleasure yet.”
She can’t discern the noise Daniel makes in response and frowns.
“You’ve nothing to worry about, Samantha,” Catherine adds, “Jack’s a good man.”
Sam nods and tries to tell herself everything will be fine. Truthfully, she has no plans to get to know her boss beyond the face and name, rather preferring to do her work and do it well so he will see that he can leave her the hell alone to get the job done.
“You’d be surprised how much you can have in common with someone completely different from you,” supplies Daniel, as if he’s reading her thoughts.
“But this can all wait until tomorrow,” Catherine says. “I don’t want to see you on base before nine, Samantha.”
“Oh. I thought General O’Neill –”
The older woman shakes her head and Sam notices the troubled look that flits across her expression before it disappears and when she smiles, Sam suspects her mentor is hiding something from her.
“Something came up,” she finally answers.
Daniel’s gaze drifts over Sam’s shoulder again and the tingle that had permeated and settled along her spine earlier suddenly returns. Before she can turn around, Catherine places a hand on her arm.
“Come on, I’ll drive you to your hotel.”
She’s too tired to put up a fight now that she can, finally, clock off for the night, so she decides to ignore Daniel’s confused look, quickly saying goodnight to him instead, and follows Catherine out of the briefing room. At the last moment, however, something makes her turn back and she looks up just in time to see a tall, muscular man with brown hair standing in the doorway of the briefing room and adjoining office.
Brown eyes meet blue and the tingle suddenly morphs and is replaced with an unexpected jolt of electricity that courses through Sam’s entire body. It takes her a moment but she forces a smile and hope it looks genuine.
His expression remains neutral, yet his eyes are dark and calculating, and Sam has the distinct feeling that she spots disapproval there too. She tries not to let it sting as she turns around and leaves.
Notes:
Next up, the meeting you’ve been waiting for…
Chapter 8: A Bad First Impression
Chapter Text
July 30, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
It’s the next day before they do meet, but it doesn’t go well and Sam refuses to take any of the blame because despite Catherine’s orders, she finds herself returning to the SGA at zero-seven-hundred hours the next morning yet she feels far from rested.
It was late by the time her mentor had driven her back to the hotel but any plans Sam had to finally catch up on some sleep were immediately thwarted by Catherine’s confession in the car. She closes her eyes as the previous night’s events replay over in her mind.
As they make their way out of Cheyenne Mountain and into town, Sam keeps her gaze forward and hopes she sounds more composed than she feels.
“So,” she says, “why did General O’Neill not want to meet me?”
Catherine glances in her rear-view mirror and takes a breath. “What makes you think he didn’t want to meet you?”
“Earlier, you said that something came up.” Catherine nods slowly. “But I know it was him I saw standing in the doorway of his office as we left. He didn’t look like someone who wanted to see me.”
“Sam,” she sighs.
“I guess I just need to know if he’s another General West,” she interrupts quickly, as her attention falls to her hands clasped tightly on her lap. “I know you – and Daniel and George – have all said he’s a ‘good man’, but –”
“Jack is a good man,” Catherine nods, “trust me, Samantha. He – he received a phone call before he was due to meet you – that’s why I had to leave you earlier, although you and Daniel seemed to be having a very interesting discussion without me.”
Sam smiles as the older woman chuckles good-naturedly, before she sobers.
“Jack just wanted a little time to think before he spoke to you.”
With a frown, Sam turns her head to look at Catherine. “Why? What did I do?”
“Nothing, sweetheart.”
“Then why would he –”
“It was your father who called.”
The sense of dread returns as Sam flits from anger to humiliation to confusion in the space of seconds. After Catherine’s revelation she felt numb. Her appetite had vanished and even though she was exhausted, she hadn’t been able to sleep.
She couldn’t believe that her father had spoken to General O’Neill without even attempting to speak to her first. OK, so maybe she could have called her father to let him know that she’d been transferred to Colorado Springs, but a part of her also suspected that her father knew her every whereabouts – something he seemingly confirmed last night.
Catherine had then refused to say what the two Air Force Generals had spoken about, already saying that she’d told Sam too much, but she did add that she had nothing to worry about. It didn’t ease her worries, however.
It was just another feeling to add to the others she’s experiencing – most of which are towards her father. She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down; he’s already managed to get under her skin and she refuses to let his interference or opinions get in the way of her work once again now that she is finally in a job that is, quite literally, out of this world.
She rounds the final corner to Catherine’s lab and is slightly surprised to find the doors already open but no-one around, so she makes her way to the desk she was using yesterday and sets her purse down beside a memo with her name on it.
It’s from Catherine and Sam breathes a sigh of relief – until she reads the rest of the message. It appears that General O’Neill has had all the time he needs to think and they can no longer delay the inevitable. She has to meet the boss.
She quickly checks her watch and see she has three hours to kill so, deciding she desperately needs something to focus on until then, she pulls out a stack of blank pages and continues to work from where she left off yesterday. It’s how Catherine finds her two and a half hours later, surrounded by paper and equations and post-it notes.
“Let me guess,” she says with a smile as she sits down, “you still don’t follow my advice to eat or sleep.”
Sam has the good grace to look abashed, but then gestures to her workspace. “I will – once I finish this.”
“Sam –” She looks up when she realizes Catherine is waiting for her full attention, “I’m sorry about last night, I didn’t –”
“It’s fine,” she smiles, although she can’t find the humor, “it’s nothing to do with you – or General O’Neill. This is between my father and I.”
“Even still,” she offers quietly, “I’m sorry.”
Sam isn’t angry or disappointed with Catherine – she could never feel that way towards the woman she views as a close friend – but she quickly accepts her apology so she can change the subject.
“Daniel said something of interest last night. He believes the Stargate can go to other places… and I think he's right.”
Catherine straightens. “What?”
Pushing her work to one side, Sam shares the conversation she had with Daniel and by the time she’s finished speaking, Catherine also looks like she believes the possibility. They start to throw hypotheses back and forth and the implications of what this could mean for the SGA – and Earth – when the phone rings.
“Doctor Langford.”
Sam isn’t privy to the other side of the discussion, but watches as Catherine glances at her before she sets the phone down and gets to her feet.
“We’ll come back to this later, Samantha.”
The dread returns as Sam remembers her scheduled meeting with the general and some of her fear must show when her mentor gives her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Come on," she smiles, "let's not keep Jack waiting."
Sam knows it’s ridiculous but she feels like she is back in school and being summoned to the principal’s office as she silently follows Catherine down to Level 27 to see General O’Neill. She plans out what she wants to say, and how she will say it, and decides that – unless he brings it up first, she is not mentioning her father.
As she nears the office she takes a deep breath before she hears the unmistakable Texan drawl of George Hammond. It’s followed by another man’s voice that Sam doesn’t recognize but guesses it belongs to that of the SGA’s commander. His voice is raised, however, which doesn’t surprise her as much as it maybe should, but also tells her that their meeting is not likely to go well.
She’s half-ready to ask Catherine if she really has to go through with this when the older woman glances over her shoulder and smiles reassuringly.
“Trust me. You really will like her once you get to know her,” she hears George say placatingly as they get closer.
“Oh, I’m sure I adore her already, George,” is the sarcastic response he receives and Sam doesn’t need to be there to see the roll of eyes which accompanies his statement.
She also has the distinct feeling that they are talking about her but she stamps down on her indignation because despite her distaste for the Air Force, Sam knows Colonel Hammond is on her side and while she appreciates his support, she doesn’t want him to get into trouble for her.
“She’s a geek.”
“She is a genius, Jack.”
“I know,” he retorts, “otherwise she wouldn’t be here. Doesn’t change matters though.”
There’s a heavy silence that falls just as Sam and Catherine appear at the threshold.
“Carter’s a scientist,” he adds, oblivious to her presence, as he folds his arms across his chest and stares at George. “I don’t like scientists. Can’t trust ‘em not to do something stupid.”
“I’m actually the world’s foremost expert on the Stargate,” Sam finds herself saying before she can stop herself. She feels Catherine and George also turn to look at her but she keeps her gaze focused solely on the General. She folds her arms across her chest in defiance, just as Jack’s gaze snaps to hers. Catherine is the first to break the stalemate as she steps further into the office.
“Jack,” she says, “this is Doctor Samantha Carter. Sam… this is General Jack O’Neill.”
Neither Sam nor Jack offer a greeting, instead continuing to stare as they both refuse to back down first.
“As I was saying, General,” George says lightly as he shares a look with Catherine and takes a half-step closer to Sam, “Samantha here is smarter than all of us – and especially in matters related to the Stargate.”
His faith in her makes her smile and she finally looks away and towards her godfather.
“Thank you,” she says quietly, before she returns her attention back to the General.
“Fine,” he finally sighs, then glances at Catherine. She gives him an inscrutable look, then nods in response and places a hand on Sam’s arm.
“Come find me when you’re finished,” she says quietly, before she leaves and closes the side door to the office behind her.
“I’ll be going as well,” George says as he moves to the other door leading out to the briefing room.
“We’ll talk later,” Jack warns just before the door clicks shut and two are finally left alone to resume their staring contest.
“So, Miss Carter,” he says with a sigh, “I –”
“It is appropriate to refer to a person by their rank, not their salutation. You should call me Doctor, not Miss.”
This time she does see his eyes roll and she straightens when he says, “Then you should call me Brigadier General.”
It’s dripping with sarcasm but there’s no anger in his words. Instead, he sounds tired and frustrated and almost as if he doesn’t fully trust her, but it’s fine because she doesn’t fully trust him either. The muscles in his jaw twitch as he studies her and Sam tries not to fidget as she feels the familiar tingle start to creep along the base of her spine. She turns her attention back to him and takes in his stance and features and, for the first time, idly realizes that he is more handsome than she was expecting.
But that’s as far as the thought goes before the General starts talking and makes another, albeit slightly less, disparaging comment about scientists.
“Being a scientist doesn’t make me any less than an Air Force officer,” she retorts, “and just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn’t mean I can’t handle whatever you can handle.”
He smirks at her argument before he sits down behind his desk and gestures for her to take the chair opposite, but she chooses to remain standing.
“Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I like women – I just have a little problem with scientists.”
“Well,” she challenges, “I’m known to be a bit of a pool shark, I have a 1940s Indian motorcycle, and I make a mean soufflé. Is that enough to shake my ‘geeky scientist’ image, or are we going to have to arm wrestle?”
Jack raises his eyebrows in amusement and Sam refuses to acknowledge that she’s torn between turned on and being outraged by his attitude. She forces herself to go for the latter and drive home the fact that while she may doubt herself at times, she knows she is the best person for the job.
“As I said to Doctor Jackson last night,” she continues, “I was studying the gate technology for two years before you went through. I’m the foremost expert on the Stargate and right now, I am here because Catherine specifically asked me to come back and help. You need me.”
“I need you,” he mutters. He then rests his fists on the table and pushes himself slowly to his feet as his expression darkens. “Let me ask you something, Doctor Carter… how’s dear old dad these days?”
She stiffens at the veiled accusation. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He clearly doesn’t believe her, but if he wants to think that she’s there as a result of some kind of nepotism as opposed to her skills and intelligence, she decides it is his problem. She’s more important things to do so when she sarcastically thanks him for his time as she heads for the door, she doesn’t linger on how she effectively dismisses the General by storming out of his office, leaving the word ‘asshole’ to fill the space where she stood just moments earlier.
She doesn’t know that Jack watches her leave, nor does she see the hint of a smirk on his lips as he retakes his seat.
Chapter 9: Whose Side Are You On?
Notes:
I know this update is coming on the heels of the previous, but I’m going to be out of commission for the next 4-6 weeks (nothing bad, but good vibes would be appreciated), so it’s likely that I won’t be able to provide updates until after this time.
I’ll do my best to share another chapter on Sunday evening, but if I don’t… I know you all love cliff-hangers. 😂
Chapter Text
July 30, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
When Sam steps inside Catherine’s lab, she sees her surprise at her sudden return before it’s quickly replaced by concern.
“What happened?”
She wants nothing more than to vent about General O’Neill and his attitude, his obvious distrust towards her, and the not-so-subtle way he insinuated that she’s only at the SGA because of her father and his connections, but she’s so angry that she doesn’t want her mentor to get caught in the crossfire. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Let’s just say the meeting could have gone better.”
Catherine continues to watch her closely and Sam feels tears prick the corners of her eyes but she refuses to let them fall.
“He really doesn’t like scientists,” she says instead but her attempt to lighten the mood falls flat when Catherine frowns. “Sam, did something happen?”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s fine. I’m fine – and I should really get back to work.”
Work, she repeats. Her life’s work.
“Samantha.” Slowly, she meets Catherine’s kind gaze. “Talk to me.”
“I –”
The rest of her sentence is cut off when the phone rings and Catherine gives her an apologetic smile before she answers.
“Doctor Langford.” She nods, then meets Sam’s gaze, pressing the phone to her shoulder. “It’s for you, but you don’t have to take it.”
Sam frowns. “If it’s General O’Neill –”
Catherine shakes her head. “It’s not the General.”
“Then who is it?”
But even as she asks the question, Sam already knows the answer.
“I can tell him you’re busy.”
“No,” she says, “it’s okay.”
Catherine studies her for a moment longer before she reluctantly hands over the phone. She then turns to leave, only for Sam to reach out and grab her hand.
“Would you mind staying?” she asks quietly.
She immediately sits down and Sam’s grateful for her support. It gives her a nudge to lift the phone to her ear.
“Doctor Carter.”
“Samantha.”
She hesitates at his voice. “Hi dad.”
“So… you can talk to me.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his barbed comment, Sam forces herself to be civil.
“Things have been… busy since I arrived. You know how it is.”
She receives a noncommittal grunt in response. “I’m disappointed that you didn’t tell me you were leaving.”
“I didn’t know. I tried to call –”
“I had to find out the next day when your paperwork crossed my desk.”
“The next day?” she repeats in disbelief, choosing to ignore the second half of his sentence completely for the time-being. “When were you going to let me know that you couldn’t make dinner?”
“I had to work late. It was important.”
“It always is with you, isn’t it?”
He sighs. “Sam–”
“Sorry,” she relents. “I did mean to call, I just – I can’t tell you anything. My work here is classified.”
“Oh, please,” he fires back. “You think I don't know what's going on under Cheyenne Mountain?”
She freezes as her father’s words sink in and for the first time she receives confirmation that her father is keeping tabs on the Stargate and, most likely, has been. Her heart starts to race as she wonders how long he’s known about the project.
“Dad –”
“You shouldn’t be there –”
She’s stunned into silence by his words, but before she can answer, he continues.
“– and you have no idea what you’re getting into.”
It is the second time in the space of a few minutes that she’s effectively been told she shouldn’t be at Stargate Alliance and it’s starting to grow wearisome.
“I’m an adult,” she argues, “perfectly capable of making decisions… I know the risks involved.”
“Do you?”
She doesn’t really, none of them do, but she knows that’s not what this is about.
“I can make a difference here.”
“You could make a difference at NASA.”
And there it is. Her father interfering in her life, thinking he still knows what is best for her and her career, and not having faith in her to be doing the right thing. Nothing she has done has ever been good enough for General Carter; not since their family fell apart. Sam quickly pulls herself from those thoughts and shakes her head.
“I’m needed here.”
“I disagree.”
“It is not your decision to make.”
“Do you even hear what you’re saying, Sammie?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s been three days, and at least ten of our people are dead and one is missing; kidnapped and taken to god knows where –”
“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not in the Air Force.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re safe,” he snaps, “and as for Jack O’Neill –”
“What about him?”
There’s a heavy silence that settles on the line and Sam instinctively knows that whatever is coming next will not be good.
“You don’t know the kind of man he is. What he’s capable of doing.”
“He’s doing a good job,” she instinctively fires back, surprising herself with the veracity of her defense, as well as the sudden 360 she appears to have made regarding General O’Neill’s attitude and character.
“You don’t know him.”
“And I suppose you do?”
A bitter chuckle travels over the line turning Sam’s blood cold. “More than you know.”
She wants to ask just what the hell that means but her father obviously takes her silence as answer enough because when he speaks again, his disappointment in her is unmistakable.
“Oh, Sammie, has he gotten to you already?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, hating the waver in her voice.
“I’d thought you would have learned your lesson.”
Sam scoffs. “I can’t believe you –”
“Stay away from –”
“Stay out of this,” she warns, her hurt fueling her anger as she straightens in her chair. “I’m here because I’m needed to do a job. Me. Samantha Carter. Not the General’s daughter. And this is where I want to be, not Washington or NASA.”
“We’ll see about that,” he growls before the line goes dead.
It’s only when Sam tries to hand the phone to Catherine that she realizes she is shaking. She closes her eyes as she tries to regain control of her emotions and stores the conversation with her father away to deal with later when she’s alone in her hotel room, while Catherine glances over her shoulder, surprised to see Jack standing in the doorway, a look of concern etched on his face. She opens her mouth to speak when he shakes his head and slowly backs away from the lab and into the corridor. She waits a few moments and then turns to Sam who opens her eyes.
“I thought I’d left all my drama behind in Washington,” she sighs.
“Come on,” Catherine smiles gently, “let’s grab a coffee.”
Curiosity.
It was curiosity that took him out of his office and on his way to find Doctor Carter just moments after she’d left and before he fully realized what he was doing.
“Curiosity,” he mumbles to himself as he pulls apart another pen and starts to piece it back together.
He still doesn’t like scientists but Sam doesn’t seem like the stereotypical scientist, and while they clashed, he appreciates that she did speak up for herself and her work. It tells him that she isn’t afraid to speak her mind, so he already knows that he’d know where he stands with her – that is, if he pisses her off, she’ll soon let him know about it – but he also believes he could trust her.
She is insanely clever and undoubtedly the best person for the job otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to set foot anywhere near Cheyenne Mountain. If he’s honest, he doesn’t really have a problem with the doc, but he does have a problem with her father. Unfortunately, he’d allowed his feelings to surface during their meeting and – after hearing snippets of her phone call he knows he needs to apologize.
He pulls a face at the revelation. He’ll try to find her again and say sorry, but also let her know that it doesn’t mean he’ll go easy on her. He will treat her like the rest of the people under his command – firmly, but fairly – because they’ve all got to be on top of their game all the time and learn to work together. It’s too dangerous to mess around or hold grudges.
He casts a quick glance at his watch and grimaces. He’s due to speak to the President shortly so doesn’t have time to talk to Sam now, but decides he’ll make a point of dropping by to see her later when there’s a knock on his office door. It pulls him from his thoughts and he looks up to see Catherine. They share a look and Jack suddenly feels foolish for having earlier been caught listening to what was a private conversation between Sam and her father.
“Is this a bad time?”
“I can only give you a few minutes,” he admits, gesturing for her to close the door.
Neither of them speak but then Catherine sits down and gives him a look which he’s quickly come to decipher as ‘start talking’.
He sighs. "OK, look. I'd gone to your lab to apologize to the doc but I thought she was talking to you and I didn't want to interrupt. When I only heard one side of the conversation - I figured she was on the phone. I wasn't listening per se... but I heard enough."
Catherine nods slowly. “Jack, I recommended Samantha for this post because she’s the best and I trust her. I’ve known her for years, and I know her father, but that had no bearing on her appointment.”
“I know. You’re one of the few people I trust, Catherine. How bad is their relationship?” he asks after a beat.
“It’s… strained.”
His guilt increases with Catherine’s confirmation and while he wonders if Sam will even listen to an apology from him, some of his indecision must show on his face.
“What happened between you and Samantha?”
His eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“She came storming into my lab earlier, but didn’t say why.”
“Well, she’s feisty, I’ll give her that.”
Catherine smirks. “She stood up to you, in other words.”
“Gives as good as she gets,” he chuckles before he sobers. “I maybe deserved some of her attitude but… I was trying to feel her out. See what kind of character she has.”
“So, why did you have to apologize?”
He frowns at the non sequitur. “Hm?”
“You said you went by the lab to apologize?"
“Yeah… I might have mentioned her father.”
She sighs. “You’re a man of many talents, Jack, you didn’t need to do that to get your answers.”
His jaw tightens at her gentle rebuke but he knows she’s right.
“I know,” he sighs heavily. “I’ll apologize.”
Just then, the red phone rings and startles them both.
“Jacob was wrong to do what he did,” she says carefully as she stands and Jack’s expression darkens. “He may not believe that, but maybe this is the best way to prove to him that he made a mistake.”
Jack studies her for a moment before he averts his gaze to the phone. “I need to get this.”
“Of course,” she says, heading for the door.
“Catherine.” She turns back at the threshold and meets his eye. “What do you suggest I do?”
“Get along with your new scientist.”
He smirks. “That’s all?”
“It might be all you need,” she replies cryptically.
He narrows his eyes in suspicion as he picks up the phone receiver. “Check in with Carter and see how she’s doing,” he says instead, “and make sure she takes lunch. We’ll need her at the briefing later.”
She nods and closes the door behind her.
Chapter 10: A Presidential Order
Chapter Text
July 30, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
It’s late by the time Jack finally gets off the phone with the President and he and George wade through the paperwork that accompanies his decision to set up a number of teams to start going through the gate and exploring the network of addresses Doctor Carter and Daniel have been able to determine from the map in Abydos.
He’s exhausted but needs to have this meeting before he can call it a night. Grabbing a folder he enters the Briefing Room and glances at those assembled around the table. Daniel, Kawalsky and Major Reynolds stand at one side, with George, Catherine and Samantha on the other. Jack lets his gaze momentarily linger on the doctor and when she meets his eye, he nods briefly in her direction. He had planned to apologize to her before the briefing but hasn’t yet the opportunity and since he certainly isn’t going to do it now, he sends up a silent prayer that they can make it through this without another argument.
He sighs as he takes his seat and the others follow.
“People, what is spoken of in this room is classified as SCI top secret. Major, what do we know about these hostiles that we didn't yesterday?”
“Not a hell of a lot, Jack,” Kawalsky admits. “The Abydonian boys who survived the attack on the base camp thought it was Ra.”
George frowns. “I thought he was dead, gentlemen. Which is it?”
“Oh, he’s dead,” Daniel nods. “He’s definitely dead. I mean, uh… the bomb… he's got to be dead… right?”
“Then who's coming through the Stargate?”
“Gods.”
“What?”
“Not as in ‘God’ god,” Daniel explains as he leans forward in his chair. “Ra played a god – the sun god. He borrowed the religion and culture of the ancient Egyptians he brought through the gate and then he used it to enslave them. You see, he wanted the people of Abydos to believe he was the only one.”
Sam glances up from the notes she’s been taking and looks to Daniel. “So, you’re saying Ra’s not the last of his race after all?”
“Maybe he's got a brother, Ray.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, a few snickers result from Kawalsky’s comment while Jack sarcastically mutters, “That's just what we need.”
“No, wait a minute,” Daniel continues, drawing the conversation back to the point. “The legend goes that Ra’s race was dying; he survived by taking over the body of his human host – an Egyptian boy. But who’s to say more of his kind couldn’t do the same thing?” He glances around the others sitting at the table. “I mean, this could have happened anytime, anywhere, there’s a gate. I mean… this could be happening right now.”
Jack purses his lips as he considers Daniel’s words, then focuses on Kawalsky.
“Aside from myself, Charlie, you’ve had the most experience of fighting this hostile. Assuming you have to defend yourself in the field, are you up to it?”
“We beat ‘em once, Jack.”
“I’ll take that as a maybe,” he quips before he finally turns his attention to Samantha, only to find her already watching him. “Doctor Carter, Catherine has informed me of a conversation you had with Daniel last night. You’re confident that the Stargate will take us where we want to go with this new information?”
He holds his breath as he waits to see how she’ll respond to his attempt to build bridges.
“Well, General, they’re feeding the revised coordinates into the targeting computer right now. It’ll take time to calculate, but it should spit out two or three destinations a month.”
He nods, then he leans back in his chair. “People, let’s not fool ourselves here. This thing is both vast and dangerous, and we are so far over our heads we can barely see daylight. Right now, I’m thinking we would all be much better off if the Stargate had been left in the ground,” he mutters.
The thought of the Stargate Program being shut down again pushes Sam to have her voice heard, regardless of whether her opinions are supported by those sitting to her left and right.
“With respect, General, we can't bury our heads in the sand. I mean think of how much we could learn, think of what we could bring back.”
“What you could bring back is precisely what I'm afraid of Doctor,” he fires back, but then his voice softens. “However, the President of the United States happens to agree with you.”
He notes the doctor’s surprise, as well as everyone else’s and resists the urge to smile – because, in the grand scheme of things, Jack is well aware of what he is about to ask his people to do.
“In the event your theories pan out, he has ordered the formation of nine teams, whose duties will be to perform reconnaissance, determine threats and, if possible, to make peaceful contact with the peoples of these worlds. Now these teams will operate on a covert top-secret basis. No one will know of their existence except the President and the Joint Chiefs… Kawalsky?”
He sits up straighter. “Sir?”
“Your team will be designated SG-1. The team will consist of yourself, Captain Casey –”
“And me?” Daniel asks.
Jack shakes his head at his friend. “Daniel, we need you to work as a consultant with the other SG teams from here. Your expertise in ancient cultures and languages are far too valuable –”
“No,” he interrupts. “Look, I – I mean I know this is your decision but I just – I really have to be on their team. My wife is out there, Jack. I need to go.”
“I'll take that under consideration. Major Reynolds, you will head SG-2.”
His eyebrows rise in surprise. “I – I will?”
“George keeps telling me it's about time you had a command.”
“I had a moment of weakness,” he shrugs before all three men exchange a grin.
“We’ll assign the other teams later,” Jack says as he gathers his papers and starts to stand, while the others follow. “For now, sit tight until we’ve more information but be prepared to ship out at a moment’s notice. George, Catherine, I’d like to see you in my office. The rest of you are dismissed.”
He’s aware that they all probably have more questions than he has answers at this point and it’s not that he doesn’t want to speak to anyone but he’s struggling with the reality that he is now responsible for sending good men and women into situations unknown – because of a war he may have inadvertently started when he killed Ra.
He doesn’t think he’d be as bothered by the situation if he could be with them on the front lines but the President made it pretty clear that if he ever tried a stunt like he did two days ago he’d be out on his ass so fast, the door wouldn’t have time to even hit his ass on the way out.
Jack runs a hand over his face. If he’s honest, what’s also bothering him is the look of disappointment he saw in Doctor Carter’s expression when he started to assign the SG teams – and her name wasn’t mentioned.
“So, what’s our next step?” George asks as he closes the door.
“We need to find out where our bad guy came from. I’m also going to need your help to go through personnel files and assign the teams.”
They nod at his request.
“For now, the majority of the teams will consist of members of the U.S. military, including Air Force, Marines and Army, but we may have to bring in a few civilians. The President –”
The phone rings, cutting off the rest of Jack’s sentence.
“O’Neill. Yeah, I’ll be right there,” he adds a moment later before he ends the call and leaps to his feet. “Ferretti’s conscious. Page Doctor Carter to the infirmary,” he throws over his shoulder, not waiting to see if Catherine or George follows.
Chapter 11: A Tentative Olive Branch
Chapter Text
July 31, 1997
Stargate Alliance (SGA)
Cheyenne Mountain
Sam can feel the heavy stares of those around her; the hushed conversations of officers and civilians alike as to whether Ferretti is correct with his intel – but she can also hear their questions, their curiosity, as to whether she really is as good at her job as people claim and if she really can input the given gate address and establish a successful connection to another world.
Usually, Sam thrives on a challenge; it’s an opportunity to push herself harder and how she learns and improves her knowledge, but this? This is different.
The pressure is different because people’s lives hang in the balance and for every second that passes, it’s another second wasted that Sha’re, Skaara, and who only knows who else, do not have. It’s strange, but even though Sam hasn’t met any of them, she’s heard the others speak about them with such respect, fondness and appreciation over the past couple of days that she feels the responsibility pushing down on her shoulders. She needs to bring them home safely.
She takes a deep, calming breath to try and dispel her colleagues’ anticipation from her thoughts, but there’s so much expectation on her – especially now since Catherine said she was stepping back to allow Sam the chance to implement some of her ideas and improve the SGA’s gate system. She thinks back to their conversation only a few hours earlier, after Ferretti had provided them with the seven symbols they needed.
Sam cast a glance at the others sitting around the briefing room table as she finished explaining how, if they can recalculate and adjust for the displacement, they can travel to the address they’d been given. Jack studied her for a moment, before he turned to George.
“How many teams can we send?”
“We don’t have a lot of resources right now, Jack,” he reminded him gently, “nor do we know the risks involved.”
Jack sighed, then ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, I know.”
He lifted his pen, tapped the end of it against the table a few times, and then looked to Sam and Catherine. “One last time. How sure are you that we can secure a connection – and when?”
“Samantha’s ideas will work,” Catherine supplied. She then glanced at Sam before she continued, “and – if it’s okay with you Jack – I would suggest she takes the lead on this one.”
Both Sam and Jack’s eyebrows rose in surprise at her words. “I don’t –”
“I’ll help with anything Sam needs,” she promised, interrupting the younger woman, “but it’s her you need to make this work.”
“No pressure,” Sam mumbled before she could stop herself. With a small smile, Catherine reached over and squeezed her hand.
The General observed the interaction, then leaned back in his chair.
“Carter,” he said, “are you confident that you can do this?”
She isn’t sure – not completely anyway – but she does know that she’d make it work one way or another. She held his gaze and nodded.
“Yes – but I will need help,” she added, staring pointedly at Catherine.
Jack’s lips twitched slightly.
“Very well,” he said. “Consider the full resources of the SGA at your disposal, Doc. Anything else?” he asked to those in the room.
Met with silence and shakes of the head, he pushed his chair back and got to his feet.
“Then let’s get to work, people. Catherine – keep me updated.”
Pulling herself from her thoughts, Sam realizes that she hasn’t seen Catherine in a while. Her mentor had said she was going to update the General on their progress, before she would grab Sam a coffee and a sandwich, but she’s yet to return. She idly wonders how long she’ll be and whether she should go herself, but she also doesn’t want to leave the computers unattended just yet. She decides to wait a little longer.
The minutes pass by as the program continues to run and Sam watches as the progress bar creeps ever closer to completion when she feels the atmosphere in Catherine’s lab change. She can’t necessarily see anything as her back is to the door and, subsequently, the rest of the room’s occupants, but then a voice cuts through the others.
“If you’re not helping, or don’t need to be here, clear out people.”
His tone brooks no argument and Sam turns slightly in her chair to see virtually everyone leave the room until it’s just her, the General and Sergeant Siler left. Sam raises a brow and watches as the General makes his way over to her desk.
“What’s up, doc?”
He doesn’t even try to hide his smirk at the greeting, so Sam doesn’t try to hide how funny she doesn’t find his popular culture reference. Instead, she angles the computer screen further towards her. Then, without warning, a cup of coffee and sandwich appear in her line of sight, right before Jack grabs one of the recently vacated seats and pulls it closer.
“Thought you’d be hungry,” he offers with a shrug. She smiles her thanks and takes the proffered items. “I also thought you’d appreciate people not watching you work.”
She burns her fingers against the Styrofoam cup and then her tongue as she takes a sip of the hot liquid but it’s just what she needs right now. She also appreciates his thoughtfulness to get rid of everyone so she can work in relative peace.
“Thank you,” she finally says, but doesn’t elaborate on what part of his actions she’s thanking him for. Although when he throws a small smile in her direction, she figures he somehow knows. They sit in comfortable silence for a few moments when the General’s gaze shifts.
“How are things going?”
“Good,” she nods, as she pushes the sandwich away for a moment and gestures to the computer screen. “I’ve been able to input the data to account for –” She stops immediately at the expression on his face, and winces. “It’s going well, General.”
He studies her for a moment, then purses his lips as if he’s trying to come to some kind of decision.
“Siler?” he suddenly calls over his shoulder and a moment later he appears from the console he’s been working at. “Take five,” Jack says with a nod towards the door.
While Sam’s pretty sure her confusion shows on her face, the sergeant doesn’t bat an eye and instead follows the order.
“Carter,” Jack says with a sigh when they’re alone, “I think we can both agree that you are way, way smarter than me, and that I’ll probably be lucky if I can understand at least ten percent of the words that leave your lips.”
She tries to hide her smile at his honesty.
“But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to hear the words – understand?”
“So,” she asks slowly, “are you saying you want to hear about my work?”
He cants his head slightly, as if weighing up his options, before he leans forward, his elbows resting on his thighs.
“I’ve gotta be honest with you, doc: I don’t really care for science, but Catherine trusts you and from what I’ve seen and heard so far, you know your stuff. That’s good enough for me,’ he admits, “but I still need some idea of what’s going on here. I need to know that my people – and what we’re all doing here – are safe and above board.”
Sam nods. “So…”
“Use small words with me.”
She can’t help the laugh that escapes. “I can try.”
“And I’ll try not to be so dismissive of science,” he offers, “even if my face says otherwise.”
They share a smile before Jack clears his throat. “So, I’ll ask again,” he says, “how are things going?”
Sam takes a moment to decide on the easiest way to explain the process in just a couple of minutes and by the time she’s finished, the General not only looks like he’s still paying attention, but that he does understand the work she’s doing. She doesn’t want to assume, however, and bites down on her bottom lip as he studies her.
“You really are the one who got the gate up and running.”
There’s no hint of mockery or teasing in his words, so Sam acquiesces. “Yes, General. I am.”
She says it confidently, but not boastful, and even if Jack thought she was bragging, he doesn’t let his feelings show. Instead, he nods thoughtfully.
“Think you can do anything about the shaking?”
She frowns at the sudden question and he pulls a hand from his pocket, waving it around as if the gesture explains everything.
“The gate. Every time it activates, it feels like I should be awaiting a call from NEIC.”
She huffs out a laugh and it seems to not only break the last vestiges of tension between them, but also acts as an apology – one both offered and accepted – and suddenly the General reaches out his hand and Sam accepts it without thinking.
“General Jack O’Neill,” he says.
“Doctor Samantha Carter.”
“I guess we got off on the wrong foot.”
“I’m sorry, General,” she sighs. “It’s just –”
He waves off her apology. “In case you haven’t picked up on it by now, people skills aren’t really my thing.”
They aren’t Sam’s either, but she refrains from saying as much and listens as the man before her continues to talk.
“With everything that’s going on under this mountain right now... sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone here is Air Force. Or a man.”
Sam nods, touched by his need to offer her an explanation as part of his apology. She has a feeling they don’t come from him often.
They fall into a silence that’s neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, but it leaves Sam wanting more and she clears her throat softly.
“Are you still willing to send your teams through the gate?”
“We’ve no choice right now,” he admits and they share a heavy look before they turn and look at the computer screen once more.
“I kind of wish I was going with them,” she murmurs.
Jack glances at her out of the corner of his eye and can feel her desire to go through the gate, but he’s no idea what kind of situation he will be sending his men into so he resists the urge to tell her that he’s kind of glad she’s staying behind. After a few moments, he pushes himself to his feet.
“Well, I’m sure you have a lot of work to get on with, Carter, so I’ll leave you to it.” He then reaches over for the sandwich Sam pushed aside earlier and pulls the plate closer.
When she looks at him, he simply shrugs. “Catherine says you forget to eat.”
He takes a step back but hesitates as if he wants to say something else, and it’s not long before Sam’s assumptions are proven right. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
It sounds almost like a question, rather than a statement; almost as if the General wants to see her again and Sam decides that it might not be the worst thing in the world if he did.
She nods. “I’ll see what I can do.”
When he gives her a strange look, a smirk graces her lips. “About the shaking.”
“Oh. Oh! Right, yes. The shaking.”
This time, she doesn’t miss the smirk on his face as he leaves her lab. “Welcome to the SGA, doc.”
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