Breathing Space
Chapter Seven
Sudden Arrivals
George Hammond caught up with Jacob and
Selmak the next morning in the cafeteria.
They had seen Dr. Fraiser leaving as they came in, so they joined their
friend.
“Well, Jacob you look, ah, refreshed, this
morning. Contented even. And from the looks of the glances the two of
you were getting, I’m assuming the rumor mill is working overtime, and grinding
out rumors as fast as it can.”
“Be sure it is, George. You would think that grown men and women would
have better things to do than speculate about other people, wouldn’t you?”
“Not gonna work, Jake. Spare me the gory details but, spill,” George Hammond demanded.
Jacob spilled, albeit, without going
into the gory details.
When he finished, George nodded saying,
“Good, I hoped you’d eventually get up the nerve to ask her out.”
Selmak allowed Jacob to flush. “I didn’t.
Selmak did. And she accepted
him.” He grinned broadly, adding, “But
we both spent the time with her and enjoyed it immensely.
“I’m glad to hear it. I think you were the only one around that
didn’t know she found you attractive.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me,
George?”
“Why?
You’d just have said she was too young, or come up with some other
excuse. That’s why I always leave you
there. I kept thinking that eventually
it would penetrate that thick skull that she was interested. At least Selmak saw it. It seems to me that he has a lot more sense
than you do, Jake.”
“Thanks, George, I’ll remember that,” Jacob
laughed back at him, taking the teasing in good part.
“So what are you and Selmak up to
today? Care to make another round of the
base and do some more PR?”
“Sure, might as well. I really hope Martouf and Lantash come back
today. I’m beginning to worry myself,
now, and I know that Sam must be getting worried again. I just have to keep telling myself to trust
Daniel to help them to work through this.
I’m sure she is doing the same, but this is the fourth day they’ve been
gone, and I’ll admit to a little concern.”
“I know, Jacob. I think that in almost every situation, being
the one on the waiting end is the hardest.”
“Yes.
And women have done it for millennia.
They’ve waited for their men to return from war, from work, and from the
bar. I don’t know how they did it.”
George nodded thinking about the
different women who waited. Mothers
waited for sons, wives for husbands, sisters for brothers. And in some wars, they had been all three
within the same conflict.
Selmak’s voice brought him out of his
reverie, “I am ready whenever you are, General Hammond.”
The general looked at him, and said,
“George. My name’s George. Please use it, friends always do.”
“Thank you, George, I would be happy to
do so.”
George frowned before asking, “Do Tok’Ra
have any other name? I mean, how do you
each know who you are talking about, or is it that a name is never repeated?”
“In the Goa’uld there are enough of
them that names are sometimes repeated.
As far as we know, Egeria did not run out of names for her
offspring. We are each named with one
name. However, if there was ever a
question then we would take the name of the place we were born. I am actually Selmak of Sierresha, which
translates to a rather long sentence.”
“Well, you have me curious now. What does it mean?” George Hammond wanted to know, intrigued.
“It means Selmak of the lake that is
gazing quietly upon beautiful high places.”
He smiled wryly. “I did tell you
it was a long sentence. Our clutch was
born and raised in a lake that was near a very beautiful mountain range. The climate was warm in the valley and only
one of the mountain streams fed into it.
There were
His voice and face devoid of emotion,
he continued, “I have looked in some of the other lakes to see if Egeria left
other offspring there, but have found none.
I have not looked in all the lakes, though, and still have hope that the
next one I find will have some. We have
always felt it strange that there were not more of us. While it is true that we numbered many
thousands, still, most queens breed many more than Egeria did. I have never mentioned my suspicion but I
often check when we go to a world that we know for a fact Egeria was on. And, of course, there are no doubt worlds
that we do not even realize she was on.”
He sighed again, as he contemplated the certain demise of the Tok’Ra as
a species eventually.
George looked startled for a moment,
before saying, “I never even considered that there could be more Tok’Ra that
have never been found. I’ll tell my
people to be aware as they explore different worlds. It doesn’t hurt to know that. It is something
we should be aware of. I’m not sure how
we would know that they were Tok’Ra and not Goa’uld, though,” he said,
frowning.
“Should you ever run across a lake that
contains Goa’uld, they will attempt to take a host that gets near the edge of
the water. If it is Tok’Ra, they will
come to the edge of the water, but they will not attempt to take a human just
because they stand by the water. They
would have to be invited to come.”
“How would you invite one to come
out?” George wanted to know.
“If they allow you to pick them up,
they are very probably Tok’Ra and not Goa’uld.
However, for safety’s sake, should your people ever run across some
symbiotes, it would be best if you contacted us. We could determine with fair accuracy if they
are Tok’Ra. There are a series of hand
signals, and an answering pattern they would swim in, to let us know that they
are of Egeria. We do know that Egeria
planned at least a dozen clutches. Most
of the Tok’Ra you know, are from three of those clutches. We do not know if she managed to give birth
to that many before she was captured or not.
We have only ever found symbiotes from those three locations. Unfortunately, she did not leave specific
information within our memories as to where she meant to give birth. We have only vague allusions, very similar to
where I was born.”
“What kinds of allusions?”
“
General Hammond frowned again. “Are you sure those aren’t lines from longer
poems or legends? They sound like they
could be part of something else. Perhaps
she emphasized those things but they are out of context?”
Selmak stared at the general. “Why, in two thousand years, have we never
thought of that? It is strange that you
would see it at once. Thank you, George;
we will do some looking into that possibility.”
George nodded. “When Dr. Jackson gets back, give it to him
and Anise. Between the two of them, if
there’s anything to my suggestion, they’ll find it.”
“I will, George. And,” he sighed, “I wish for Samantha’s sake
that they would come back. I know she is
very upset about this, and it is not good for her to be so stressed.”
“I know, but you put her mind at
rest. She’ll trust Daniel to help them, and
no doubt, she would rather wait an extra day or so, rather than have them
regress and it start all over.”
“Very true. Well, I guess we should get started. Where would you like us to begin?”
“The gym first today? That way we can make our way around and hit
the infirmary last.”
Selmak grinned, his mood lightening at
those words, “An excellent idea, George.
Lead the way.”
Laughing lightly, the two men made
their way toward the gym.
Janet and Jacob left the cafeteria
after having a cup of tea together.
Selmak didn’t like coffee and Janet liked tea as well as coffee so they
had enjoyed a cup of tea and a piece of cake.
The klaxons blared an off world activation and Janet watched as they
tensed.
“Go, Jacob. I need to get back anyway, for as I told you,
we had some injuries on SG5 earlier today.
Go, go.”
Leaning towards her, he kissed her
swiftly, saying, “Thanks, sweetheart, I will,” before walking quickly toward
the control room. He really was
expecting it to be Daniel and Martouf at last.
He and the General entered the control room at the same time, both of
them just in time to hear Sgt. Davis, announce, “It’s SG1’s signal, sir.”
“Open the iris, Sgt. Davis,” the
General said calmly, as he and Jacob headed for the gate room. They were standing and watching the event
horizon, as Martouf and Daniel stepped onto the ramp. Jacob noticed at once that Martouf looked
calm and controlled. He did not seem to
be overly tense, but neither was he completely relaxed. Just in case he had made Daniel bring him
back, Jacob decided not to mention Sam first.
“Did she return with you, Jacob or do I
still need to go to her?” Martouf ask
quietly, as he reached him, and they clasped arms. Jacob realized that Martouf’s grip was quite
tight, showing that he was not as stress free as he appeared.
“Let’s go to the General’s office. She’s fine, but she’s not here.”
Martouf nodded, as if he had expected
that answer. As Daniel started to walk
away, he turned to him. “Please, come
with us, Daniel. You should hear
whatever Jacob has to relate to me.”
“If you’re sure?” Daniel asked.
“I am sure, Daniel. You deserve to hear this, as well,” Martouf
said quietly.
Hesitating only slightly, he nodded and
turned to go with them to the General’s office.
“So, how was your camping trip,
Martouf? Did you find anything
worthwhile?” Jacob asked, keeping the
discussion light, until they could reach the General’s office.
“We camped by a beautiful lake where
the stars seemed to set upon the waters at night. They looked to be so near you felt as if you
could reach out and touch them. Daniel
discovered that the planet used to belong to a queen who at one time was allied
with Egeria. You would know of her also
Selmak. I could not remember too much about
her other than they parted ways when Egeria became more radical in her aims
than she was willing to be.”
“What was her name?”
“It was Nekhbet, a very minor player
from what we were able to find out. There
was no record of what happened to her, and Lantash said he did not know either,
all he could remember was that she didn’t believe in using the sarcophagus
either. She agreed with Egeria on what
it did personality wise. It is a lovely
planet, calm, serene, and with a very comfortable climate,” Martouf told him
quietly, as they approached the general’s door.
Once inside his office, and with the
door closed on them, they each found seats and proceeded to look at one
another, none of them exactly sure where, or how, to begin. Finally, Lantash came forward, to ask, “How
is Samantha, Jacob? We wish you to tell
us the truth, please. If she has
discovered that she is happier, and more content, away from us, we will try to
understand, although, I do not think we will succeed.”
“As I said, Sam is fine, and she misses
you both. So please, don’t even start to
go down that road of thinking she no longer cares for you because it’s a dead
end. She loves you, she misses you, and
she is waiting for you to get your head outta your butt, and realize what she
is saying to you. I hope that the two of
you realized where she was on your own?
That Daniel didn’t end up having to tell you?” Jacob asked forthrightly.
“No, he did not have to tell us. We realized less than an hour ago, though, so
we cannot claim to have understood what she was trying to tell us right away,
nor did we know where she was. We have,
however, finally come to the realization of what she was trying so very hard to
tell us. I am sorry we let her down,
Jacob.”
Jacob shook his head. “Actually, she realized some things, too, and
if I hadn’t offered to come here for her, and check on you, she would have
returned herself. I suggested that she
stay in the tunnels, and let me come check on the two of you. After hearing her side of it, I wanted to get
your side, too, although I admit, I felt she was right to get the hell outta
Dodge for a while, er, that is to say, leave so you’d have time to come to
terms with things. That’s why I didn’t
encourage her to return with me. If you
really have been as overprotective as she said, then you both needed to do some
thinking, as much as she did.”
“We have been overbearing and
overprotective. Looking back, we are
surprised Samantha remained with us as long as she did. We have been foolish, and have treated her as
if she was a child instead of a grown woman, who was capable of making her own
decisions. Does that answer your questions,
Jacob?” Lantash answered him, bluntly
and concisely. “We also realize that she
could have talked to us until she had no more words, and we still would not
have heard her. As difficult as it is to
admit, she was right to leave us and force us to face what we were doing to
her, to ourselves, and to our relationship.”
Lantash looked Jacob straight in the eyes, hiding nothing, as he
spoke. There was not a doubt that they
were willing to take the complete responsibility for what had happened, and
that they were sincere in there statements.
Jacob relaxed, and said quietly, “She
understands why you were being the way you were, Lantash. She doesn’t really blame you; she was just
trying to get you to stop, before it drove a wedge between you. I said she came to some realizations, and I
meant it. She came to realize what a truly
astounding thing this is for you. How
very rare this kind of thing is, and therefore, how nervous it is making
you. She understands your fear. How terrifying it is to know that you could
lose her and the child. But she also
knows that she could lose you, too, and it is something that all of you have to
live with. She is very aware that
everything you did, you did for love of her and the child, and she is very
touched by that. I really think she
could come back now and make it work, but it would be a whole lot better, for
everyone, if she didn’t have to come back and make it work, or manage
to live with it.”
Daniel spoke up before Lantash could
castigate himself and Martouf anymore.
“I don’t think that Lantash and Martouf can take the entire blame for
this, Jacob. All of us, from Janet to
Jack to me, have to take a fair amount of it.
Even the other SGC members were being overprotective. Mostly it was us, though. I’m sorry we allowed it to happen. I’m sorry I allowed it to happen. I should have known better and protected her
from us. I let her down, too.”
“As long as you can all stop, now, and
just care for her, not smother her, I think she’ll be fine, and so will
you. I have to tell you, though, that
what you all were doing, while it was driving her crazy, was not the final
thing that made her actually make the decision to leave. She laid her plans well in advance, true, but
she didn’t know when, or if, she would actually do it.”
Martouf had taken over for Lantash, as
they both felt they should take part of any reprimands. He asked now, obviously puzzled, “If it was
not what we were doing, then what was it, Jacob?”
“Oh, it was what you were doing. If it had gone no farther, she might not have run, although truth to
tell, I have a suspicion that you would have done something sooner or later
that would have pushed her over the edge.
But, the final straw was when she realized that not only was someone
following her to the bathroom, but there was an airman waiting in her room when
she finished her shower to be sure she was all right, and she had been assigned
to stand guard all night outside the door, just incase something happened.”
Martouf frowned. “I am sorry, Jacob, but we did not do those
things, and if Samantha believes we did then she is wrong. We will freely admit to seeing to it that she
ate well, rested often, did not over-work or lift heavy things, always had
someone with her in her lab, never walked up or down stairs alone, and did not
venture through the Chaappa’ai.”
“We will also freely admit that we
refused to take her to the Tok’Ra on a visit.
We allowed Janet to run more tests than were probably necessary, and we
considered staying behind instead of going on missions, until we decided that
Nyan could keep her company. We were
instrumental in getting her a lab assistant.
We refused to allow her to leave the base without an armed and capable
escort.”
“We did not assign a guard for her while she was on base, going to the
bathroom, or showering. That would have been
ridiculous.” Martouf was quite
indignant. How could his Samantha have
believed that anyone was doing those things?
Had they driven her to paranoia?
“No, Martouf, I know you didn’t. Sam didn’t think you did it either, but it
made her realize that the situation wasn’t going to get better on its own; that
it would just get worse. You need to
take it up with Jack. It seems that he
assigned the guards. Sam told me that it
had Jack’s fingerprints all over it, and she was right. The thing is, she wasn’t sure you didn’t know
about it and simply turned a blind eye, or even actively agreed with him. So, she put her long laid plans into action
and left.”
Martouf’s eyes became hard, and General
Hammond realized he was seeing Martouf’s temper on it’s own, without Lantash
holding him back, “I will kill him. I
will kill him slowly. How dare he do
that to us? Does he have no idea what
damage he may have inflicted on our relationship? Of course, perhaps, that is what he wanted,”
he said, bitterly.
“Martouf that’s just not true. Jack knows you care for Sam, he knows how
much Sam loves you, and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. He was just being overprotective like the
rest of us, that’s all,” Daniel hurried in to pour oil on the troubled
waters. He hoped no one had a
match. “We did discuss it early on,
remember? And we decided it wasn’t
necessary at the time. Maybe Jack took
that to mean that it would be necessary later.
Try to stay calm about this.”
Martouf’s eyes flared, and Lantash came
forward to say, “He will not hurt Colonel O’Neill, Daniel, I will not allow
it. Although, I may allow him to
threaten him and, as I have heard others of the Tau’ri say, make sure he knows
that if it happens again, he will truly wish he had never been born.” He sighed.
“But, what you said was true, also.
We did discuss it, and when Martouf has time to think about it, he will
realize that it was not entirely Jack’s fault.
We were all at fault when you get to the bottom of the situation. I just want to see it speedily
resolved.”
“And,” he continued, turning back to
face Jacob, “the truth we suddenly saw this evening when we re-read her letter,
is that it was not so much the things we were doing, as it was that we had
taken over her life, and were allowing her to make no decisions, even when it
pertained to her and her own body. That
is what we must guard against most, but it must also be accompanied by a
lessening of our surveillance of her.
Samantha will do nothing that would harm either herself or her child. We have always trusted her, and there is no
reason to stop doing so now. We simply
had to be reminded of that. We are much
more comfortable with the entire situation now, Jacob, I assure you.”
Jacob relaxed, agreed, and decided the
subject had been gone over enough. They
had obviously learned what needed to be learned, and Sam could look forward to
a change in their attitude and actions.
Trying to lighten the conversation, he
said, “I’m sure she will be glad to see you, Lantash. She is missing you both as I said, very
much. Although, don’t be surprised if
she insists on bringing one of Tashmar’s offspring home. She seems to have fallen in love with the
little devils. And Tash is worming his
way even deeper into her affections by following her around and acting as a
body guard. She said he reminds her of
you and the guys. So that should tell
you she still loves you all,” he grinned, as Lantash began to smile for the
first time since they had returned.
“I am glad she has gotten to see them,
Jacob. She has been wanting to ever
since they hatched. I should have
brought her at once, as soon as we knew they had arrived. I will not make that kind of mistake again, I
assure you.”
Jacob nodded saying, “Now that Anise
has found a way to synthesize a food for them, the lizards can go anywhere it
can be made. They aren’t nearly as
particular about what they eat as we thought they were. Those black bugs just happen to be their
favorite food and what they prefer.”
Changing the subject he asked, “What
are your plans for now? I assume you
plan to go to the Tunnels? It’s still the middle of the night on Corlatt, and
Sam was probably in bed several hours ago.
It won’t even be daylight there for three or four more hours.”
“We came back so we could get cleaned
up, and then Daniel and we are going to go to the tunnels to see our respective
mates. We wish to be there when she
awakens,” Martouf took control and answered Jacob’s questions.
“Good idea. Go ahead and do that. I’ll wait around here for a while, yet, but I
may go back through with you. If not,
then tomorrow for sure.”
Selmak came forward, and turned to
Daniel, saying, “I do hope that when you, Freya, and Anise decide to have
children that you will have learned from this.”
Daniel looked at him blankly for a
moment, before saying, “But, I didn’t think we could have children.”
“There is no reason you cannot,
Daniel. You must discuss it with
Anise. She can insure that Freya’s eggs
mature and are released at the most opportune moment and then, after a couple
of months, she will simply become dormant until the child is born. I believe it would be an excellent event, and
it will ensure that your children and Martouf, Lantash and Samantha’s children
all grow up together and have playmates.”
“It would be a wonderful happening,
Daniel. What Selmak says is true, and I
know it is something that Samantha has worried about. That is, I know she has worried that our
children will have no one to play with.
I am aware that many children grow up without playmates, but if they can
have them, it is so much better for them.
You should think about it, and discuss it with Freya and Anise,” Martouf
said, as he joined the conversation.
Daniel looked stunned at the thought,
but said, “Yes. I – I will. I had assumed, but if it can, that is, if we can, I
didn’t know, we should talk, yes, I – I will.”
Lantash grinned. He did not think he had ever heard his friend
so without a coherent thought.
“Come along, Daniel. We will go and get cleaned up and ready to
go.”
“What?
Oh. Oh, yes, of course,” Daniel
mumbled, as he stood and followed Lantash from the room. The two men and the symbiote in the office
behind them laughed aloud, as they remembered the shock on Daniel’s face.
They got up as well and walked down the
hall toward the infirmary. After telling
Jacob and Selmak he would see them later, General Hammond stopped, and then
turned back to them, as if just having a thought. “Of course,” he said quietly, “Dr. Fraiser is
still young enough to have children as well.”
Having dropped that bombshell, he turned and walked off down the hall
leaving a stunned Tok’Ra behind him.
Two hours later, Daniel and Martouf
were heading towards the General’s office when the klaxons went off and they
heard the always ominous words, “Unscheduled off world activation.” They sprinted toward the control room and
entered just as the technician on duty was telling Jacob and the General who it
was.
“It’s the Tok’Ra, Sir.” Then he gasped, “General this says that they
are coming in hot. They’re under fire,
sir!”
“Open the iris,” the General barked,
but Sgt. Davis was already reaching for it.
The general hit the intercom and called for defense teams and med teams
to head for the gate room. Jacob stood
frozen watching the event horizon as supplies and people started pouring
through. Jack and Teal’c arrived, and as
a group, they moved toward the gate room.
No enemy fire was coming through the
event horizon, but the Tok’Ra that began to arrive were disheveled and had
cuts, bruises, and wounds of assorted kinds.
Martouf and Lantash stood silently beside Jacob, Daniel, and the
General, their attention riveted on the event horizon. There didn’t appear to be many injuries, and
Ocher seemed to be coordinating the efforts of the people. Jack, Teal’c, and numerous airmen had sprung
forward to help with the supplies that were coming through, helping to move it
off the ramp.
/Good God, Sel, it looks to be less
than half of the Tok’Ra personnel from the Corlatt base. Where the hell are the rest and the supplies
and equipment they should have been shoving through? It looks as if they have gotten very little
equipment ready. What happened? And where in the hell is Sam?/
/Only a surprise attack would cause
this much disruption and so little equipment to be moved through. The gate on Corlatt is on the surface, every
thing would need to be transported to it.
If the attack was sudden they would not have had time./
As the last of the supplies they did
seem to have salvaged were sent through, and those who had been busily shoving
things frantically into the event horizon as gliders were firing on them, dove
through the gate along with dirt, dust and sand, they all realized one very
important thing. Sam wasn’t with them. Selmak took over as he felt Jacob’s panic
rising, and Lantash did the same for Martouf.
As the event horizon shut down, Selmak demanded of Aldwin, the Tok’Ra he
was nearest to, “Where are Samantha and the others?”
“They are on Verduna, Selmak. As soon as we got word that Amset had been told our location and was on
his way with a fleet, we began the evacuation.
We attempted to send Samantha here, but she refused saying she would
help with the evacuation first, and then return if she needed to. She did agree to go through to the new home
world to work on the receiving end though.
She was not on Corlatt when the attack began and as you can see well
over half of our people were already relocated.”
Both Selmak
and Lantash relaxed marginally. However,
they wanted to hear everything, such as, why, if they were already sending
people through to Verduna, were the remainder suddenly forced to go to
Earth?
“We had all
day yesterday and most of tonight to evacuate so we knew we could get
everything. We managed to pack up all of
our personal belongings, all of the science equipment, everything. Samantha, Malek, Anise, Christophe, Arwanna,
and Daimesh, were in the first group to go.
They went through to receive things and begin to grow the tunnels. Later some of the others went through with
some equipment, but they came back and said the new tunnels were growing
quickly and the engineers had chosen well.
That group went back through several times with more equipment and
belongings. They would help transport
things to the tunnels and then come back for more. Finally they stayed to help put things away
as that end became as busy as our end was.”
“Someone
packed up your things and sent them through Selmak so they are at the new
base. We worked through the night until
just a few minutes ago. Another group
went through not more than an hour or two ago, and we managed to get everything
through, except what you see here. We
finished the packing of our own belongings and the remainder of our
equipment.”
“We tried to
dial Verduna, and the gate would not engage.
We assumed they were trying to dial us to perhaps come back and help, so
we waited but nothing happened. We
continued to try until we had waited to long and were under attack. The tunnels were already collapsed, not that
we would have gone back to them in any event.
When we could not dial Verduna, we decided to come here, so you would
know what had happened, and to continue trying from here. We are assuming that they will eventually
realize they can not dial Corlatt and try here, if they can dial out at
all.”
“We had to go
somewhere quickly, Selmak, for by then, we were being bombarded, and it was
touch and go if we would all make it through with the remainder of our
belongings and equipment, without loss of life.
From what I can tell, we all made it.
Even,” he smiled for the first time, “Tashmar and family. They are in the very large crate over
there.” He nodded toward a large crate
that had holes in it.
“I am sorry,
Selmak, we have no idea why their gate would not engage and therefore, why we
cannot get through to Verduna.”
“You are sure
our people were alright? They were not
perhaps under attack there?”
“Not as far
as we know. And even if they were under
attack the gate should have engaged.”
Selmak
frowned. That was true.
Lantash
assimilated all the information.
Samantha was all right. She had
already been at the new base. Whatever
had happened, she would work to fix it if it was on that end. Finally, he said quietly, “Samantha will get
word to us as soon as they realize they cannot connect with the gate on
Corlatt, if there is any possible way that she can. She will assume you came here if you were
able to get away, and they will be worried about all of you. Did we have any ships that were on the base
that were flown out?”
Aldwin looked
startled that he had forgotten that.
“Yes, we had two. Korlan and
Jorlin took one and May’et and Torlesh took the other. But neither one was in good repair. They were newly acquired and each had
problems we were working on fixing. They
are traveling together and will take almost two weeks to reach Verduna if,” he
continued ominously, “they have no other problems. I’m afraid that the general consensus was that
two weeks was being extremely optimistic.
They are traveling together in case either has trouble, as it is
expected they will.”
“Both of the
Alkesh that are in decent condition are on missions under operational
silence. One of them took a grave chance
and broke their silence to get the message about the attack to us, and then
immediately went back undercover. We are
fairly sure they were not detected, but we cannot take the chance of trying to
contact them again. I am sorry,
Lantash.”
Lantash nodded
decisively, “No, of course we cannot, and I would not consider doing so. However, we must attempt to contact the other
two, so that they will know there may be problems when they reach Verduna. Whatever has happened, if they can contact
us, they will. In the meantime, we
should continue to attempt to connect from here.”
Pausing in
thought, he continued, “There is always the possibility that the gate
malfunctioned. It does happen, and that
is why we carry spare parts for the dialing devices. Do you know where they are?”
“They should
be at Verduna, but I would have no idea where.
If there is a malfunction, then they will have to find the parts and
that will take time,” Aldwin sighed, obviously tired, and now that the crisis
was passed, he was feeling the aftereffects, even though his symbiote was
attempting to let him come down gently from the adrenaline high.
“Lantash, how
far along is Samantha? She looks, um,
very pregnant.”
“In four days
time, she will be seven months. She will
have only two months to go, give or take three weeks,” Lantash said grimly, as
Martouf soothed him from within, as he felt the beginnings of the old fear
rising. /Samantha will be fine, and she is with Arwanna and Anise. They have all of the medical equipment and our
trained healers are there. They will be
fine, Lantash./
/I know,
Martouf. Thank you for reminding
me. We must continue to do so for each
other. I have a feeling the next two
weeks, or possibly more, will be very long indeed./
“Let’s go try
to contact Verduna, and then see about contacting the Alkesh and the Tel’tac
that are on their way there,” General Hammond said, knowing it would be better
if they had something to do that was constructive.
An hour
later, SG1, Jacob, General Hammond, Aldwin, and a Tok’Ra engineer named Laurent
sat in the General’s office.
Laurent
looked around the table at the grim faces and sighed. He did not have good news. “We still do not know why the gate will not
connect to Verduna. There is no way to
tell from here. We have not managed to
contact the Alkesh. Jorlin said when
they left that they had at least two crystals in the Tel’tak’s engine that were
in very poor condition, so they could both have to slow down considerably. The estimate of two weeks for them to reach
the base is probably being optimistic in the extreme. I believe it will be three to four earth
weeks before they reach Verduna.”
Aldwin spoke
up to enforce the seriousness of the ship’s situation, “There is nothing we can
do about that situation, but wait, for we cannot take the chance on them
splitting up and one of them completely failing. Our people would be drifting without defenses
if that happened.”
“Selmak, we
must decide where we are going to go. As
the ranking Tok’Ra in our group, you are in command. We cannot go back to Corlatt and we cannot go
forward to Verduna. We could go to one
of the other bases if we knew for sure where they are, but as you know, that is
no longer information that is freely known throughout the Tok’Ra. So although we could find out it would not be
a prudent thing to attempt. I do not
believe we should take the chance on our communication being tapped into.”
“No, only
under the direst of circumstances will we do that. All we can do is wait until our ships reach
Verduna. Three weeks is not that
long. General Hammond has talked to his
president, and they are offering us accommodations here at the SGC, until we
can get to Verduna, and I have accepted.
I already have a group helping to turn some of the unused storage rooms
into sleeping quarters. There are not
enough private rooms, but most are willing to share accommodations. The bonded pairs are being put into the
smaller storage areas. The larger rooms
we convert will be communal, for those who are single.”
“We will
continue with any missions that anyone had planned, and some of us may join SGC
teams temporarily. We will consider this
a get to know you time between the symbiotes, hosts and members of the SGC. Other than that, all we can do is wait. Thank you for your report. Sgt. Davis will take you and show you where
everything is. You’ll find him in the
control room. You are all
exhausted. Go get some rest.”
Laurent and
Aldwin nodded. They had been dismissed
and they left, glad to be released, for Selmak had stated no more than the
truth. They were exhausted.
In the room
he left behind there was a tense silence.
Finally Lantash broke it.
“Samantha will take care of herself and her baby. We have always trusted her, and there is no
reason to stop doing so now. We must all
remember that.”
Jacob came
forward and smiled at him, tiredly.
“You’re right, Lantash. We all
know how competent Sam is. We have to
trust in her and for that matter in Anise and Malek, Daimesh and Arwanna. They are all good competent people. Whatever has happened, they will take care of
it, and if they can’t, then when the ships arrive, we will know what the
problem is, and what they need to get it back online. Now, very possibly, we have at least three
weeks to wait. I suggest we get some
missions on the board, and get back to work.”
General
Hammond drew out some folders. He would
keep SG1 busy for the next three weeks or more if it killed him. And it just might before this was all
over. What no one was admitting was that
the new base could very well have been attacked and destroyed. If the informant knew where their Corlatt
base was he might have known where they were going. However, that was not a possibility that
would be discussed. Not yet, anyway.
TBC
Chapter Six
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