Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

First Day

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…

There were days, as her father had been inclined to say, when it didn’t pay to get out of bed. Or beam up test pilots from a world on the edge of a beautiful nebula with unusual phenomena that a science team aboard her ship, the Hammond, was studying.

Sam Carter massaged her temple and stared at the two pilots stood in front of her. “Captain Peartree and Lieutenant Partridge?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The Captain smiled at her. She was a typical flyboy in every respect except for the boy part of the term; cocky, self-assured and a touch arrogant. Her dark hair was in a style in contravention of the regs; her green eyes more than a little mischievous. But she was also more than competent to perform the official flight test of Sam’s new baby; the X402. She had commendations up the wazoo and personal references from Cameron Mitchell and John Sheppard. She was the real deal.

She’d been assigned Partridge as her second chair as soon as the young blond had made the Daedalus F302 squad. Sam figured Caldwell had meant for it to be a joke; there was a very sneaky sense of humour lurking beneath the Colonel’s stern exterior. However the assignment had happened, the two had become a dream team; saving the Daedalus from a Wraith attack by successfully managing to blow up a cruiser; saving Atlantis from a rogue Asgard ship intent on dive-bombing the city before it could raise shields during a crisis; and not least saving Earth from a Lucian Alliance attack some months before.

Their assignment to her on Christmas Day had Jack O’Neill’s sticky fingers all over it. But then it would; he was still the Head of Homeworld Command despite several attempts at retiring.

“I was hoping we would have a chance to go over the design specifications with you before the flight, Colonel.” Partridge smiled hopefully and Sam read nothing but eagerness and sincerity in his warm brown eyes. “I had some questions about the new Asgard based engines and the Ancient control mechanism for the naquadria instability…”

“You’ll have to excuse Partridge, ma’am.” The Captain cut in. “He’s a geek.”

Her tone was affectionate and fond; it reminded Sam of the way Jack had talked about her when they’d been in SG1.

“So am I, Captain.” Sam replied dryly. “And I believe the geek saved your butt during the dogfight with a Jakrian glider last month when he rebooted your 302 in the fastest time ever recorded.”

The Jakrian’s were a new alien race – avian based – discovered by SG1 a few months before when Daniel Jackson had accidentally beamed onto their invisible flying city over P7Y309 during a transporter mishap. Unfortunately, they were very hostile, which was a real shame, Sam mused, because their flight technology was amazing. And might have somewhat prompted her tweaking of the X402 design.

“Yes, ma’am.” Peartree said with a visible wince that Sam knew she intended for her to see since her green eyes were filled with good humour.

Partridge smirked at Peartree who rolled her eyes at him but stiffened immediately as she realised that Sam was watching the interaction avidly with a raised eyebrow.

Oh. Now she had an idea why Jack had sent her the pair – well, above and beyond their record for aerial awesomeness. Still, she could be wrong. She needed more data.

“Dinner,” Sam ordered briskly, “we’ll discuss the design specifications over Christmas dinner in the mess; twenty-hundred. Dismissed.”

The pair came to attention in perfect synchronicity before leaving her on-board office, a tiny affair that Sam knew had been a storage cupboard in the original design. Before too long she made her way to the bridge and her command duty took up most of her shift, paperwork the early evening, and she was more than ready for an escape of dinner by the scheduled time.

Dinner went pretty much as Sam had predicted; dry turkey, suspect cranberry sauce and lumpy mashed potato, but the atmosphere in the mess was jovial. One of Partridge’s degrees was in aerospace engineering and his comments were insightful. But Peartree was just as animated once the discussion got going, relating the tech speak back to practical flying and making useful insertions of her own. Sam was impressed with them, individually and as a team. She also knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were both head over heels for each other; the signs were too familiar.

Sam headed back to her quarters, thoughtful. She let her mind drift back as she walked, thinking back to fishing invitations and blue force-shields and za’tarc machines and…and Janet Fraiser asking her if there was a problem long before Sam had been ready to admit she’d fallen in love with her CO.

Sam immediately logged into the computer and as she had expected there was a personal email from Jack from the last transmission from Earth waiting for her. She smirked as she read through it.

“Re: Partridge & Peartree

Sam,

I know you’re busy out there with your science projects and I am not officially recognising any problem but…I know if anyone can fix it, you can.

And Merry 1st Day of Christmas!

Always, Jack x”

She shook her head in fond exasperation and replied.

“Re: Partridge & Peartree,

Sir,

I believe Captain Peartree is perfect for the open test flight position reporting directly to me, and Lieutenant Partridge would be an excellent fit for my X402 design team on the Hammond, although I would advocate a field promotion to Captain – not out of line with the Lieutenant’s past achievements, performance and time served. He would report to Major Hailey.

While this may in theory separate a high performing team into differing arms of the COC on The Hammond, I am certain that should the situation warrant it, in line with regulations, exceptions might be made as required at the discretion of myself as their overall CO.

If you agree please send your official approval for the transfers and field promotion in the next transmission.

Colonel Carter.”

In other words, Sam thought with amusement as she sent the email, she’d keep them flying together if she could justify it from a mission perspective. Like the test flight of her X402 which would need the best pilot on the Hammond and a geek from the design team flying back-up in the second chair.

She’d talk with them in the morning, Sam decided. Maybe they wouldn’t be ready to acknowledge there was a problem or maybe they would appreciate the manoeuvres that would allow them to pursue their feelings. She hoped it was the latter. They didn’t dwell on it but she and Jack had wasted so much time before finally getting their acts together, although Sam sometimes wondered whether either of them would have accepted a resolution any earlier. Sometimes, Sam thought philosophically, things happened the way they happened for a reason.

Sam opened up a new email.

“Jack,

Merry Christmas.

I love you too.

Sam x”

Second Day

On the second day of Christmas…

So, it turned out that Peartree and Partridge immediately understood the benefits of their transfers and Partridge’s field promotion (all signed off by Jack in the transmission that morning), and if the heated look they’d exchanged when they’d left Sam’s tiny office was anything to go by, they were off to find a storage closet that hadn’t been turned into an office as soon as they could find one. Apparently it was only Sam and Jack who took years to get to the point of seeking out storage closets (not that they had actually sought out storage closets even after getting together – although there had been a memorable interlude in Daniel’s office when both of them had been visiting the SGC after their reassignments to accommodate their relationship back before the war with the Ori had started).

She shook her head and took her seat on the bridge. “Report.”

Her second-in-command, Major Franklin, smiled at her. “All duty stations reporting green, Colonel. We’re maintaining the asynchronous orbit to accommodate the astrophysics team. Doctor Keeler notes that they’ve isolated some kind of pattern in the light show they’re watching. He’d like you to take a look if you have time.”

Sam felt her scientific curiosity stir. Her working life had moved far beyond her primary specialism in astrophysics but it was still her first love. “I’ll go down there later.”

He cleared his throat. “Major Hailey reports the design team is on track outfitting the X402 and should meet the schedule for the first test flight.”

“Good.” Sam breathed out in relief that they’d make the scheduled date. It had been a battle to get the brass to agree to keep the design team for the X402 on the Hammond instead of Area 51 once the research facility had been rebuilt from the devastating Wraith attack. Both Jack and her immediate CO, General Vidrine, had gone to bat for her, pointing out that there was no reason to shift the activity back when Sam, the design team and the Hammond had proven they could make it work.

It helped that of all the fleet, the Hammond was primarily intended for scientific exploration. The Odyssey remained ostensibly the flagship with its integrated Asgard core; the Daedalus operated as the conduit between Pegasus and the Milky Way (and Sam was certain Sheppard had been literally hours away from simply stealing Atlantis when the decision for the city to return to Pegasus had come down some months before), and the Apollo was the main military support for the SG teams, Earth’s allies within the Milky Way and Pegasus, ably assisted by the newly built Chekov and the rebuilt Sun Tzu.

“Incoming transmission!” Captain Meyers stated, breaking into Sam’s thoughts. “It’s being relayed through the Stargate on the planet, ma’am. It’s Homeworld Command.”

“On-screen.” Sam requested, slipping out of her chair to head to the large communications screen on the left of the bridge. Homeworld came into focus; the desks and monitors of the busy command centre behind the very familiar face of her husband. She smiled warmly. “Sir.”

“Carter.” Jack smirked at her. “So, you know the thing with the V’Breeni that you sorted out last month?”

Sam had fixed their Stargate. It had been an easy fix and had literally taken moments.

“I remember, sir.” Sam replied. “Wasn’t SG20 checking in with them today?” Before the beginnings of worry could take hold of her because Cassandra Fraiser had just joined SG20, Jack’s smirk widened, an indication if ever there was one that there was nothing majorly wrong.

“The V’Breeni have a present for you.” Jack waggled his eyebrows. “According to SG20’s shiny new anthropologist they’re insistent that they give it to you today.” He made a sideways motion with his hand. “They’re gating through to your planet in an hour so…beam down, make nice, say thank you for the gift and,” another whirly gesture that Sam had long ago dubbed ‘do whatever it is you do,’ “you know.”

“I do, sir.” Sam confirmed dryly.

Jack grinned at her. “Excellent. Well, I’ll leave it in your capable hands then, Carter.”

“Sir.” Sam smiled back, allowing herself a moment of indulgence to soak up the sight of him. It wasn’t the first holidays they’d spent apart since their marriage, because there had been her assignment to Atlantis, but it didn’t make it any easier. It was ironic, Sam thought with wry amusement, that they’d spent every Christmas together before they’d become husband and wife, but not after. Neither of them complained overly much; they were both military and it came with the job.

“Oh, hey!” Jack said, just as she had been about to step back, “Happy Second Day of Christmas!” He made a signal to Walter lurking behind him and the connection winked out.

Sam’s eyes narrowed in suspicion but she wasn’t going to complain about getting to see Cassie and gifts were always nice.

Well, not always, she mentally corrected herself; the gift of cat poo from P9Y521 had especially not been nice even if Daniel had been insistent that in the Durab’s culture it was a highly sought after delicacy.

She selected Major Hailey, Major Marks and her security officer, Captain Phelps, to beam down with her. All were veterans of the programme and could deal with the crazy; Jennifer Hailey was head of the design team but she’d served with SG5 before her maternity leave and transfer to R&D, Kevin Marks had been flying 302s since the ill-fated Prometheus, and Ted Phelps was formally SG3.

They waited patiently by the Stargate at the appointed time with some beamed down spice cake and apple juice which the V’Breeni loved. The chevrons lit up and the wormhole appeared.

Sam’s radio crackled. “SG20 requesting permission to gate, ma’am.”

“Permission granted, Major Grogan.” Sam cast a look toward Hailey and hid her smile at the younger woman’s happy anticipation. She’d had an ulterior motive in requesting Hailey accompany her; Hailey and Grogan had never married but they were together and had a boisterous son they’d named Elliot.

Grogan stepped through with the V’Breeni Prime Minister, a tall, lanky man with the V’Breeni’s typical red-hair. Sam only had eyes for Cassie who stepped through next with another V’Breeni – a scientist named Gourd. The rest of SG20 – Sergeants Oakley and Peel – emerged pulling a small cart with a large object covered in a blue fabric.

After a restrained welcome and greeting, Sam allowed herself to be ushered into the best position to see as the V’Breeni clambered into the cart to reveal her gift.

Cassie nudged her and grinned. “You’re going to love this.”

The V’Breeni whisked away the cloth and beamed at her.

Two things occurred to Sam simultaneously: one, that the cloth had shielding properties of some kind because without it she felt the low level buzz she always got near naquadah, and; two, the entire statue was made out of naquadah and shaped into a beautiful rendition of two birds in mid-flight.

“Holy Hannah.” Sam murmured, shocked.

Gourd beamed at her. “I noticed you very much admired our V’Harv birds on your visit to our planet, Colonel Carter.”

“It’s stunning.” Sam said sincerely. And if a small part of her was crying at the thought of all that naquadah used for a diplomatic gift so she couldn’t then use it for something like energy generators…well, it was nobody’s business but her own.

An hour later, Oakley and Peel escorted the V’Breeni back through the wormhole and Sam pretended she didn’t see Grogan kiss Hailey goodbye while they happily ignored her hug with Cassie.

“I’ll see you when you get back.” Cassie said with a cheeky smile. “Good luck with the test flight.” She hugged Sam again briefly and whispered in her ear. “He’s fine. Grumpy yesterday morning but he perked right up with your email last night. Even waved SG1 off to their latest mission with a smile on his face.”

Sam nodded grateful at Cassie’s update on Jack. She watched as Cassie and Grogan headed back to V’Breeni and returned to her ship. The statue was placed carefully into cargo after Sam took a few photos of it. She uploaded one of them, attached it to her official report and sent it along with a more personal email to Jack.

“Jack,

Happy Second Day of Christmas.

See attached photo.

For the record V’Harv birds do not look anything like turtle doves. Please tell me you’re not seriously attempting twelve days?

Love, Sam x”

A reply chimed in her inbox that evening…

“Carter,

Peartree and Partridge I’ll cop to, and I’m not saying I didn’t consider doing all twelve days when Cass told me about birds thing the V’Breeni gave to you, but then I thought where the hell would I get three French hens?

Ah, don’t answer that, Carter – rhetorical question!

Miss you.

Always, Jack x”

She went to bed laughing.

Third Day

On the third day of Christmas…

“I swear, Carter, this is a complete coincidence!” Jack began.

Sam arched an eyebrow in a reasonable facsimile of Teal’c’s and folded her arms. Homeworld Command seemed oblivious to their CO acting like a recalcitrant husband rather than a three star General which was probably just as well.

“There’s been an accident at the Gamma site.” Jack continued.

Their Gamma site was a scientific outpost that conducted experiments on alien equipment and animals that were deemed too dangerous to take place on Earth.

Sam’s frowned deepened. Their original Gamma site had been completely destroyed by flesh-eating bugs so any kind of accident was cause for concern. “And?”

“Some Ancient doohickey turned the CO…”

And the Gamma CO if she remembered rightly was French; Colonel Alain.

“…a visiting French scientist and his very dull wife into…”

If Jack said hens she was going to kill him.

“Dinosaurs.” Jack finished, aiming for an innocent expression and failing. “The geek guys said something about Archaeopteryx?”

Bird dinosaurs.

Three French bird dinosaurs.

Great.

She glared at him.

“Jean-Pierre requested you personally take a look.” Jack stated nonchalantly.

Jean-Pierre Michel was the current serving IOA French representative and he was hotly tipped to lead the IOA once Strom’s term was up.

“I think the scientist guy’s wife is something like Jean-Pierre’s second cousin three times removed?” offered Jack as though that explained everything and maybe it did.

Sam worried her lower lip with her teeth. She hated leaving her ship especially since her review of the nebula data had shown indications that the light show they were observing was not natural in origin; less aurora borealis and more like a lighthouse signal. She was tempted to refuse to help – Jack hadn’t made it an actual order yet – because the risk that the science team was about to stumble over a first contact was reasonably high. But the data was inconclusive. And her crew was excellent and she trusted them to deal with any issue while she was absent. Perhaps if she was only away for a short time…

“Sir, you’ve seen the report on the nebula?” Sam asked eventually.

“Inconclusive, right?” Jack replied casually, but he gave a nod to acknowledge her concern.

“I’ll agree to the request but only to make an initial assessment.” Sam said. “If the problem can’t be fixed within a short time-frame, I respectfully ask that another scientist is sent.”

“Reasonable request and a good compromise.” Jack said grinning. “Thanks, Carter.” He signalled with a pointed finger to Walter who nodded. “Details on their way to you now. SG2 will meet you there for back-up in…”

“Two hours.” Sam said loudly.

Jack gave her a look which meant ‘which one of us is the General?’ and she shot him a look right back that said ‘like you’d demand any less if you are still a Colonel.’ In the background, Walter was trying hard not to laugh.

“Two hours.” Jack said cheerfully as though that had always been his plan. “Happy Third Day of Christmas, Carter!”

Sam glowered at the blank screen.

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, she and SG2’s CO Major Canning stared at the security monitor recording the room where the three bird dinosaurs had been corralled.

“Fascinating.” Doctor Sanchez, a young xenobiologist with messy dark curly hair and oversized glasses, commented. “The two males seem to be displaying for the female.”

Sam massaged her temple. “Is the device in the room?”

“No.” Doctor Hendricks babbled, his brown eyes worried and fearful; his chubby hands waving in all directions. “I managed to grab it when we escaped. It’s in Lab One.”

Sam nodded. “Major Canning, find some way of separating the two males from the female.”

Sanchez whirled around. “Colonel, I protest. This is a wonderful opportunity to observe the mating rituals of a now extinct species!”

“We actually think that’s what the device was meant to do.” Hendricks interjected nervously, his thin eyebrows climbing towards his thinning hairline.

“You think the device was meant to turn three people into dinosaurs for the sake of observing mating rituals?” Sam said dubiously.

“Yes?” offered Hendricks. “Well, not exactly mating rituals but observing the animal, yes? Doctor Li’s translation of the device’s readout before it shorted out would substantiate that.”

“Regardless,” said Sam firmly, “the males and the female are to be separated.”

Canning went to do her bidding.

“Colonel…” Sanchez began again.

“None of the individuals involved here consented to being observed in mating rituals.” Sam stared meaningfully at Sanchez who flushed bright red realising what she had been advocating. Sam felt a twinge of sympathy recalling her own scientific curiosity over witnessing the effects of a black hole many years before. It had been Jack who had reminded her of the human cost and she’d taken the lesson to heart.

Hendricks motioned towards the door. “Shall I take you to the device, Colonel Carter?”

They made their way to Lab One. Sam unclipped and set her weapon down to pick up the Ancient device responsible for the accident. The power unit was burned out. She could probably MacGyver something. If this were Atlantis, she mused, McKay would have already fixed it, turned the dinosaurs back to people and done it all berating Hendricks for being an idiot; he would never have dreamed of calling her for help. Sometimes she wished she could rant at people the way McKay did especially when she was being used as the equivalent of the Milky Way’s fix-it girl. Not that she was ever going to tell Rodney that.

She set to work, explaining how to fix it to Hendricks and his team as she went, and within fifteen minutes had the device’s power issues resolved. She quickly turned the device on, worked out how to reverse the effect and headed off to zap dinosaurs.

“Jacques!” Marie Fourier had been changed back first. She pushed by Sam into the room with the two men and hugged her husband before kissing him passionately.

“Marie!” Jacques returned the kiss tenfold.

Sam jerked her head at the door and a sheepish Colonel Alain followed her out.

“Merci beaucoup, Colonel Carter.” Alain said fervently. “I cannot tell you how much I appreciate…”

“Think nothing of it.” Sam said quickly.

She was glad to get back to her ship. By the time she’d showered, changed and gone into her office to write up her report, there was an email waiting for her.

“Sam,

So according to Jean-Pierre you can get French hens in a little deli in Georgetown.

Always, Jack x”

Sam rolled her eyes, opened up a new email and attached a surveillance photo of the three French bird dinosaurs she’d sneaked off the security team.

“Jack,

Do not even think about four calling birds.

I’m serious.

Love you.

Sam x”

Fourth Day

On the fourth day of Christmas SG1 sent to me…

Mid-afternoon on the fourth day of Christmas and there had been no emergency call from Homeworld Command. That either boded very good or very ill depending on the point of view. Sam decided that calling up Homeworld just to check it hadn’t been invaded, destroyed or victim to some other disaster would be a sign of paranoia. Homeworld had received the Hammond’s morning transmission of reports and official paperwork without issue, Sam reminded herself again, trying to ignore her worry was rooted in the personal (why hadn’t Jack called her?) rather than the professional (clearly there was no need for General O’Neill to have a conversation with the CO of the Hammond). Sometimes finding the balance between their personal and professional lives was frustrating.

After checking on the Hammond’s operations, Sam focused instead on the mysterious light show in the nebula with Doctor Keeler. Keeler had been one of her undergrad professors; he was old, cranky and very, very intelligent. She’d only managed to convince him to join the programme once he’d retired from academia. Bernard took her through the latest data and they did a comparison with the previous days’ data and both of them frowned at the results.

“Definitely not a naturally occurring phenomenon based on this data. The lights are sequential; the pattern obvious; repeating every fifteen hours.” Bernard said in his usual dry lecturing tone.

“I concur.” Sam blew out a breath. The problem was determining the message. Was it ‘Keep Out Danger Ahead’ like the lighthouse she had compared the lights to the day before? Or was it ‘Come In the Water’s Fine?’ Maybe it was a trap; a light meant to attract a moth to a flame…and she was getting carried away.

The problem was that they had come to the end of their specialism; astrophysics had theorised, gathered data and drawn conclusions. The next stage required someone else…

Sam tapped the table. “We need a communications expert.” She reached for her earpiece and startled when it crackled before she could touch it.

“Colonel Carter to the bridge.” Major Marks’ voice was filled with tension.

“On my way.” Sam got up. “I have to get to the bridge. I’ll get someone from communications to report to you as soon as they can, Bernard.”

“Samantha.” Bernard said kindly.

Sam made her way briskly but without actually running. It was a walk she had perfected in Atlantis. She got to the bridge and the crew seamlessly moved into their positions as she took her seat.

“Report.” Sam ordered.

“We’re picking up a distress signal from P5S081.” Captain Phelps informed her. “It’s on an old Tok’ra channel but it’s a standard Morse code SOS.”

Daniel.

P5S081 was SG1’s current assignment.

Sam felt the adrenaline rush through her body. “Beam down an Airman to dial Homeworld and get me the General ASAP.” She shifted to Marks. “Prepare to break orbit, Major; set course for P5S081.” She pressed the comms button on the chair. “All personnel report to battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat; this is not a drill.”

“Homeworld, Colonel.” Phelps said as soon as she disconnected.

Sam slid off her chair and hurried to the monitor, noting Jack’s worried face at the unexpected communication. “We’ve received a distress signal from P5S081, sir. The Hammond is the closest ship and only one hour away. Request permission to…”

“Request granted. Walter’s sending you the mission file now.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Bring them home, Carter.” Jack said simply.

She was on her way back to her seat when the connection was severed.

“Airman Wen has beamed back aboard.” Phelps confirmed briskly.

“Break orbit and get us underway to P5S081.” Sam ordered.

“Course laid in and engaged, Colonel.” Marks reported.

“You have the bridge.” Sam said and moved swiftly to her office to read the mission file. It was brief; SG1 were investigating a new Lucian Alliance threat reported via one of Vala’s old contacts. They’d gone undercover at a local brothel owned by said old contact.

Something had evidently gone wrong.

She called for Phelps, briefed him and ordered him to prepare a team in case they couldn’t beam SG1 up. Phelps nodded briskly and left.

Sam considered whether she should beam down herself.

It was an argument she had every time she considered leaving the Hammond for an alien world. She was not the CO of a SG team anymore; she was not an active SG team member anymore. She shouldn’t just beam down because it was SG1; because it was Teal’c and Daniel, Cam and Vala.

She remembered how John Sheppard had lingered after the debriefing of the mission to rescue him and his team only a few days after her appointment as the CO of Atlantis. He had somehow managed to say ‘thanks for the rescue but it’s not your job anymore, and I’d rather you stayed on Atlantis in future because that should be your priority’ in a subtle enough way that she had laughed ruefully and acknowledged his point rather than being mortified that he was right that she’d gotten her command decision wrong; she should have sent Lorne instead of leaving him in charge of the city and riding to the rescue herself. She had sent Jack an email poking fun at herself and asking Jack how he had changed gears when he’d become General. His email back had simply said ‘badly’ which might have been unhelpful but was singularly comforting.

So, it was another lesson she had taken to heart and while she had gone off-world during her time on Atlantis after that, it was primarily for diplomatic reasons. The only one other rescue mission she had done had been when both Sheppard and Lorne had been trapped in a collapsed building and they had needed an experienced CO on the ground. There had been a solid logical reason for her decision to assign herself, not just a want to do it herself.

Phelps was formally SGC, a veteran of SG3, and therefore very used to rescuing SG1, the dangers posed by the Lucian Alliance specifically, and off-world encounters generally. He and his team would be fine and would only feel restricted by her presence.

She rolled her eyes at her own mental arguing. They didn’t even know if there was a need for them to beam down.

An hour later, they came out of hyperspace and immediately found the issue: two Lucian Alliance ships were battling it out above the planet and a ground assault was in progress on the ground.

Sam gripped her chair as her crew went to work. The Alliance ships were ignoring the Hammond which was good.

“We can’t lock on SG1 due to some kind of jamming interference.” Marks noted.

“Phelps, we’re beaming you down into the brothel; resolve the jamming issue and be ready for pick-up in five.” Sam ordered.

“Just don’t tell my wife, Colonel.” Phelps replied breezily. “We’ll see you on the other side.”

“Team is away.” Marks confirmed a moment later.

Sam nodded tightly. “Take us back into hyperspace for a minute, course at your discretion.” She hoped that the Alliance guys had assumed that the Hammond had turned up, seen their fight and turned tail – thus ignoring the team on the planet rescuing SG1.

Marks did as she asked.

“About turn.” Sam ordered after a tense minute. “Bring us out on the other side of the planet from the ships.” The planet should mask their presence.

They dropped out of hyperspace.

“Can we get a lock on our people?”

Sam barely stopped herself from marching to the monitor and calling up the results herself.

“Affirmative. Jamming device has been neutralised.” Marks replied. “SG1 and Hammond rescue party beaming aboard now.”

Eight forms solidified onto the bridge in front of her.

Sam breathed out sharply in relief. “Good work, everyone. Marks, get us out of here. Take us back to the Keeler Nebula, indirect route.” Her lips curved into a smile as she finally had time to take in her former team’s outfits.

Teal’c wore nothing but skin-tight leather pants; Daniel wore a flimsy shirt over a pair of laced up leather pants; Vala was more covered than the guys since she was in a leather cat-suit teamed with thigh high leather boots. Cam, the leader of SG1, was without clothing except for his boxers.

She raised an eyebrow at Cam. “Forget your pants again, Cam?”

“Hi, Sam. Thanks for the rescue. I am going to just go and…find some clothes.” Cam said evenly and started off the bridge.

“Me too.” Daniel pointed at Cam and followed him.

Teal’c simply bowed his head and made for the door.

“Good plan.” Sam said cheerfully after them.

Vala sprang forward and hugged Sam hard. “I’ve missed you!”

Three hours later with SG1 back in normal BDUs, they gathered around the private communication monitor in Sam’s office.

“So, what you’re telling me is that there is a threat but it’s been diverted because Daniel convinced some Alliance chick who hired him for the night that peace was possible between us if she took over the Alliance?” Jack gazed through the monitor with amused brown eyes. He was in his own office back at Homeworld Command providing them all with privacy rather than the public forum of the command centre. “Damn, Daniel, you must have been very…”

“I didn’t sleep with her.” Daniel said with gritted teeth.

“Of course not, darling.” Vala said sweetly, wrapping her arm around him and placing her head on his shoulder.

“I’m not sleeping with you either.” Daniel continued exasperated.

“And I was going to say persuasive.” Jack cut into the pair’s banter with a not-so-innocent jab despite his best attempt at an innocent expression.

Sam ducked her head to hide a smile.

“She’s in love with Malik, her main rival’s son. He’s in love with her.” Daniel repeated. “I just convinced her that she would be able to marry him if she took over the other guy’s territory and claimed Malik as her consort in the aftermath.”

“It is a tale not unlike your Romeo and Juliet, O’Neill.” Teal’c stated.

Sam wondered if it would end the same way.

“Mitchell, what’s your tactical assessment?” asked Jack, changing gears.

“We just started an internal war in the Alliance.” Cam said succinctly. “It should keep them busy for a while.” He grimaced. “In theory.”

Jack gave a sigh but nodded. “OK, good work. It won’t be the first time we started an internal war for them that fizzled out eventually but we might get a few months out of it.” He changed focus back to Daniel. “Are you sure you want to stay on the Hammond and help with Sam’s little science project?”

It was a good thing she loved him, Sam thought fondly.

“It’s a possible first contact, Jack!” Daniel began hotly, riled as Jack had intended.

Jack held up a finger. “Ah!” He waved at the monitor. “So, Carter,” he grinned at her, “I would just like to point out that I had nothing to do with you going and finding yourself four call girls.”

Sam lifted her eyebrows. “You OK’d the mission.”

Jack’s face fell.

“That aside, it doesn’t count because four call girls are not four calling birds.” Sam continued.

“Calling birds, Carter.” Jack replied fervently, waggling his eyebrows.

“Yes, but technically I think Daniel and Cam were undercover as rent boys not call girls…”

“Hey!” Daniel and Cam chorused.

She ignored the protest of both men, “…and Teal’c was their pimp. So not four call girls.”

“I agree with Colonel Carter.” Teal’c stated firmly. “I was not a call girl.”

“Of course you agree with Carter.” Jack said disgruntled.

“What’s this about?” Daniel asked, his head moving from the monitor and Jack to Sam, and then back to Jack with the very clear expression that he didn’t really want to ask, was guessing it was something he didn’t want to know, but his curiosity had gotten the best of him anyway.

“Jack sent me Peartree and Partridge on Christmas Day.” Sam explained.

“Oh.” Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose. He frowned at Jack. “You’re not actually attempting…”

“No!” Jack held up his hands. “Just…” he whirled his hand in the air, “the last two days produced some freaky coincidences; that’s all.”

Daniel turned back to Sam for an explanation.

“The V’Breeni gave me a statue of two birds on the second day,” Sam said, “and yesterday there was an incident at the Gamma site and three French people got turned into three bird dinosaurs.”

“So, two turtle doves and three French hens.” Cam concluded, catching on.

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, sending his shirt askew. “OK, that is freaky.”

Teal’c’s eyebrow rose. “You are referring to the popular song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’”

“Oooh, I know this!” Vala said excitedly, perking up. “On the first day of Christmas…” she began to sing.

Cam slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry, General.”

“I agree with Sam.” Daniel said to Jack.

“Of course you do!” Jack complained, throwing his pen towards Daniel. It fell just in front of the camera. “Nobody ever agrees with me.”

“Because you somehow making call girls out of calling birds isn’t accurate,” Daniel pointed out dryly, “and besides; in the English version, the song refers to four Colly birds meaning blackbirds and in the original French version…”

Sam cleared her throat as Jack’s brow lowered. “So maybe it’s the thought that counts.”

Jack’s eyes darted to hers and suddenly it was though there wasn’t any distance between them. “See, this is why I like you the best.” He said warmly.

“I believe that was established when you took Colonel Carter’s hand in marriage, O’Neill.” Teal’c said.

They all smiled rather sappily.

“OK, people,” Jack said, straightening and reaching for the pen he’d thrown, “I have General-y stuff to do so…go; have fun with the science project.” He smiled at Sam and the screen went blank.

It was good to have SG1 on board and Sam spent the evening with Daniel going over the astrophysics data before making her way back to her quarters. She checked her email one final time before going to bed and saw one from Jack waiting as usual.

“Sam,

They’re all brunette or brunet (is that even a word – it doesn’t look right?), and they all know how to fly a plane. Well, Daniel knows the theory and I’m pretty sure he could wing it.

So…four black…birds?

Always, Jack x”

Sam smiled widely at the screen.

“Jack,

I like you best too.

Sam x”

Fifth Day

On the fifth day of Christmas…

“So, want to hear something freaky?”

“Daniel,” Sam said looking up from her computer monitor to stare at Daniel lurking in her office doorway, “no commander of a spacecraft studying a nebula with an unexplained phenomenon that is likely to be alien in origin ever wants to hear the words ‘want to hear something freaky?’ It usually means the aliens are attacking or boarding.”

“Just as well you’re not just any commander then, isn’t it?” Daniel teased lightly. He entered her office and closed the door. He set the folder on the desk, flipped it open and handed her a printout.

She frowned at what looked like musical notes scrawled all over the page. “Music?”

“Language.” Daniel corrected. “Although arguably music is a form of language so…”

“So, musical language.” Sam completed, feeling a familiar intellectual buzz of being on the same wavelength, thoughts headed in the same direction. There were times she missed the old days when she and Daniel used to work together closely on some science project of hers, or some linguistic or historical project of his. They have entirely different academic disciplines but their combination was always something special.

“After you went to bed last night, I put up the pattern of the light show as dots on a couple of whiteboards and when it was up there, I got an idea.” Daniel said, hands waving excitedly. “I pulled the original survey information from the planet and…” he pointed at the piece of paper she held, “that was a copy of some writing that Doctor Casey took at one of the ruins on the Southern continent.”

Sam frowned. The planet below – P1Y921 – had originally been considered for a future evacuation site, perhaps a colony. The planet was devoid of intelligent life although there had been signs of an advanced industrialised civilisation on the Southern continent long abandoned with only the ruins of it left behind. All the geological indicators suggested an ice age had once consumed the planet and the original inhabitants had moved on or died. The ice had since receded leaving a range of wildlife alive on the planet including a bear like creature on its Northern continent that seemed to be the largest predator. Then the survey team had observed the nearby nebula in the night sky which had led to the Hammond studying the nebula with the ultimate fate of P1Y921 to be determined.

“It’s the same.” She concluded from Daniel’s expression.

“If we assume that the light show is complete, then what Anna copied is a partial segment of it; a fifth to be exact.” Daniel grinned at her. “It begs the question; which came first the light show or the musical language on the planet? Did they mirror what was in the sky or…”

“Or did they leave a message for others to follow?” Sam finished excitedly.

“I think we should beam down and revisit the ruins where the rubbing was taken. There may be more of the language there that I can then use to…”

“Do whatever it is you do when you translate something.” Sam completed for him, impatient.

Daniel shot her a look. “You know you sound like Jack when you do that.”

“Thank you,” she said sweetly.

“It wasn’t a compliment.” He retorted, but he was smiling.

She rolled her eyes at him and pulled the folder towards her to slip the paper back inside. She closed it and tapped it on the desk before handing it back to him.

“OK.” Sam said. “I’ll contact Homeworld and get the sign-off for SG1 to go explore the ruins.”

Daniel frowned as he took the folder back. “And when you say SG1, you’re including you in that right?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “I’m kind of in charge around here, Daniel. I can’t just drop my command duties to go explore.”

As she had reminded herself the day before.

“But we might need an astrophysicist since the second half of this language is based within the nebula,” Daniel argued, “Doctor Keeler isn’t fit for planetary exploration, and this mission was originally assigned to the Hammond.”

Sam’s lips twitched. “You miss me.”

Daniel smiled back. “So that’s a yes, right?”

Sam turned it over in her mind. It wasn’t like the day before. She wouldn’t be in any immediate danger as it wasn’t a rescue mission; her ship was in orbit not in the middle of a fire-fight and the crew more than capable of handling things; and, most importantly, she missed SG1.

Fifteen minutes later, she stood in front of her communications monitor and tried hard not to smile at a pouting Jack.

“You’re going off-world?” Jack said again. His sulky expression said ‘without me, and I’m not happy’ clear as day.

“Daniel made a compelling argument.” Sam offered with a bright smile.

“He’s good at those.” Jack said, rocking back on his heels, his hands in the pockets of his BDU pants. “Fine. I guess since this is your science project…so, have a good time.” He pulled a hand from his pocket to gesture vaguely. “And you know; find out what’s up with the light show.”

Sam nodded briskly. “Thank you, sir.”

“Carter.” Jack stopped her from ending the call. “I’m counting on you to make sure Daniel doesn’t stumble over another alien bad guy.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I make no promises, sir.” She replied smartly.

Jack was smirking as she ended the call so she called it a win as she headed to the gear-up room to join her former team-mates.

They beamed down into the ruins twenty minutes later.

“Well, Teal’c and I will patrol the perimeter and leave you crazy kids to it.” Cam drawled.

“Try not to lose your pants.” Sam called out after him.

Cam lazily waved a hand back at her.

Vala winked at her broadly and meandered away.

Daniel was already heading to the far wall. “This isn’t exactly what Doctor Casey recorded.” He glowered at the writing. “This is why the protocol is supposed to be to take rubbings! How many times do I have to tell everyone the correct procedures for…and Anna! She’s an archaeologist! She’s supposed to know…” He yanked his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Sam patted his shoulder consolingly. “Nobody follows my procedures either.” She commiserated.

“It’s not her fault.” Daniel said. “It’s mine. She’d just lost Gary and she said she was OK but…” he waved at the wall expressively.

Her eyes sharpened. She remembered Gary Casey; he’d been an archaeologist assigned to SG26. The entire team had gone missing on P9S734. Nobody had stopped looking but nobody had found them either. Her heart ached a little for Anna but on the other hand…

“You think there’s more she missed?” Sam asked bluntly.

“We should probably redo the survey.” Daniel agreed. “I shouldn’t have…” he sighed, “work always makes me feel better?”

But Daniel would never let his grief stop him from doing his job correctly.

Sam shrugged. “Jack’ll understand.” Jack understood grief better than anyone. “So,” she said dragging them back to the main problem by waving at the wall, “she missed out the…the phrasing? Is that the right word?”

Daniel gestured at the wall. “Five notes. New line. Five notes. New line. Five notes.” He shook his head. “It’s very structured.”

“A code.” Sam stated with conviction. “Based on inputs of five with five variations.”

“A code for what though?” Daniel mused out loud.

A rumble disturbed them, the ground shaking slightly.

“Daniel! Samantha!” Vala’s yell had them moving towards her in perfect synchronicity, weapons ready in case they were needed.

They found her in the adjoining room staring down at the floor which had partially retracted to reveal stairs going downwards.

“Where did that come from?” asked Daniel, breathless from their short and concerned (not panicked, never panicked, Sam thought to herself) run.

“Well, there was this shiny stone sticking out,” Vala pointed at a flat stone on the floor that appeared to be painted gold, “so I stepped on it and…” she motioned at the hole.

Sam hid her smile at Daniel’s exasperation at Vala’s intrinsically chaotic nature and reached for her radio. “Cam, come in.”

The radio crackled.

“Mitchell here.” Cam said chirpily. “I was just about to radio you. We found something.”

“Steps leading underground?” Sam asked crisply.

“Nope,” Cam replied with jaunty authority, “a very similar set of ruins to the ones you guys are standing in about a five minute walk away.” He paused suddenly. “Why have you found steps that lead underground?”

“Yes.” Sam said succinctly.

“Damn.” Cam whistled. “How do you want to do this?”

Sam thought about it for a long while. “We need a UAV sweep of this city. Can you organise that with the Hammond while Daniel, Vala and I take a look underground?”

“Check-in every thirty?” Cam suggested.

“Agreed.” Sam ended the radio call. She hoisted her faithful P90 and clicked on the light. “Daniel, you’re in the middle; Vala, protect our six.”

“I certainly will.” Vala said with a bawdy grin.

Daniel sighed.

Sam ignored the byplay, knowing for all her kidding that Vala took her duties seriously, and headed down the steps carefully, testing each before placing her full weight. They might look like stone but stone could crumble and she wasn’t taking the risk of another broken leg.

The steps went on for a long time, long enough that they did the first check-in with Mitchell and Teal’c while they were still descending. They finally came to an end, a long tunnel stretching out in front of them.

“Well, this isn’t creepy.” Vala remarked brightly. “At all.”

Sam smiled as she led the way forward. “It makes sense though. Ice was taking over the surface of the planet, right?”

“Right,” Daniel confirmed, “and so you have two survival strategies; leave or…”

“Go underground?” Vala said sceptically. She sniffed. “I would have voted for leaving.”

“Maybe they did.” Daniel mused. “Maybe the light show is supposed to tell us the story of what they did, where they went.”

Sam held up a hand. “There’s a door.”

Vala pointed at the raised gold stone on the floor near to it. “I’ll bet that opens it.” She moved before either Sam or Daniel could stop her and stamped on it.

Sam immediately raised her weapon as the door mechanism rumbled to life and slid open to reveal a room with five walls all filled with the same pattern of musical notes that the light show had revealed. A computer-like device was on a column rising out of the floor in the centre of the room.

“Can you access this?” Daniel asked.

“Maybe.” Sam ran her eyes over the dusty keyboard and the column. “It could take some time.”

The rest of the day disappeared in a flurry of activity; of calling Teal’c and Mitchell and updating them; the revelation that the UAV sweep had discovered another three identical ruins to the ones they were already exploring and that all five were laid out in a direct line; organising additional teams from the Hammond to ascertain whether each contained a computer room and finding that they each did.

But Sam still hadn’t cracked the alien computer by dinner and they called it a night. They returned to the ship to report back to Homeworld.

That night, Sam curled up in her quarters, catching up on her work and enjoying a computer that she understood. She wasn’t surprised to find another email from Jack waiting for her.

“Carter,

So, no gold rings but the freaky coincidences continue since the number five seems all important to the folks that used to live on the planet you’re orbiting.

Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling me I’m not sending you enough gifts?

Always, Jack x”

She traced the words on the screen and frowned at the hint of insecurity that lurked in the joking tone. She quickly dived into the files and attached a series of five photos to her email.

“Jack,

I don’t need twelve days of gifts to know you love me and I’m glad that instead of giving me rings, you’ve walked through all the important ones with me.

See attached photos: [Earthring], [Abydos], [Chulak], [Hanka], [Langara].

I miss you too.

Love, Sam x”

Sixth Day

On the sixth day of Christmas…

“They’re descended from geese.”

Sam refused to drop her head and bang it against the table. She settled instead for glowering at Daniel over the table in the officer’s mess. She hardly ever used the private dining room preferring instead to catch a meal in the main mess with everyone else like she had done in Atlantis. But when SG1 had beamed back up from the planet, she’d decided somewhere less public for dinner and debriefing was in order. Once she’d gotten access to the computer systems on the planet that morning, Sam had spent the rest of the day on the Hammond overseeing the finishing preparations for the X402’s test flight and catching up on her command duties. She was eager to know what SG1 and the survey team Homeworld had sent to help had learned.

“You’re kidding.” She said.

“He’s not.” Vala twirled spaghetti around her fork in a wonderfully competent way that Sam had never learned but which Vala did naturally.

“Doctor Sanchez thinks they’re related to true Geese. She’s named them the Coscoroba.” Daniel said.

Sam noted the mention of the Gamma site xenobiologist. Sanchez was on loan to the hurriedly put together Homeworld survey team; the mission was short notice and many of the usual personnel had leave over the Christmas period.

“Coscoroba Swans are the closest living relatives of true geese.” Teal’c informed Sam sagely.

“You googled Wikipedia again, didn’t you?” Cam accused Teal’c.

Teal’c simply raised his eyebrow in response.

“Anyway,” Daniel said hurriedly, ignoring his plate of Bolognese in favour of talking, “there are five repositories of information; historical, scientific, agricultural, biological and cultural in line with the five buildings. From what I learned from the historical database, the society was slightly ahead of our own and had started space exploration to the nebula. It was the equivalent of satellite pictures that revealed to them the encroaching ice-age.”

“The next part is very romantic.” Vala declared.

“Six of the Coscorobans decided to get together and save everyone.” Daniel said. “They constructed the repositories…and the satellites that they sent into the nebula.”

Vala slapped him. “That’s not the romantic part.” She paused for dramatic effect. “The six scientists fell in love!”

“I believe, Vala Mal Doran, that Daniel Jackson finds the preservation of a civilisation to be romantic.” Teal’c gently chided her.

“Good to know, Muscles,” Vala said breezily before winking in Daniel’s direction, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Daniel huffed out an exasperated breath.

“The six scientists fell in love with each other?” asked Sam, trying to keep the conversation somewhat on track. The look Cam shot her wished her well in her endeavour and predicted failure in her immediate future; she couldn’t say she blamed his pessimism.

Vala sucked up some spaghetti. “Mating pairs.”

“Sanchez says that geese tend to be monogamous.” Daniel said.

“Like swans?” Sam desperately tried to remember anything to do with avian scientific classification since she’d reviewed the whole avian arm of it when the Jakrian’s had emerged.

Daniel frowned. “I don’t know.” He waved the fork he held at her. “Anyway, not the point…”

“Was there a point there, Jackson?” asked Cam dryly.

Daniel glared at him. “The point is that these six scientists created the legacy of their civilisation. They sent up satellites with what we think translates to eggs into the nebula hoping to attract another race into investigating.”

“You’re thinking Gadmeer.” Sam said excitedly, immediately seeing where Daniel’s conclusions were leading.

“Yes,” Daniel agreed with enthusiasm, “I think the satellites are all containers of everything they need to reseed their population.” He thrust his hands out and sent drips of Bolognese over the table.

Teal’c glowered at him and pointedly moved his plate further away.

“So, obviously, we need to go into the nebula.” Daniel concluded happily.

Sam frowned. The nebula’s properties would play havoc with the Hammond’s sensors. They’d be flying blind. She had faith in her crew but she’d want more time to prepare them.

And then there was the imminent X402 flight test to consider.

“Getting back to the romantic point,” inserted Vala.

“There is no romantic point!” exclaimed Daniel.

“That’s because you’re not romantic.” Vala berated him lightly. “Now, hush: the leader of the geese scientists, M’Rau, was a great lady very in love with her mate, Amrak, and she believed that they could only entrust the future of their civilisation to someone who loved as fiercely as she did so she created a device which would scan and do some kind of telepathic or empathic analysis of whoever was around the nebula, and assess whether they were good enough.” She sat straighter with a triumphant expression. “And if they were good enough they got the light show that matched the code on the planet.”

“Seriously?” asked Sam, surprised despite all the years she’d spent in the programme.

“Isn’t it romantic?” demanded Vala.

“Indeed.” Teal’c replied.

Sam smiled at him briefly before her expression shifted back to concern. “I’m a little worried that we’ve been telepathically or empathically scanned and didn’t have a clue about it.”

“It can’t have been that dangerous or there would have been side-effects by now.” Daniel said logically.

“Do freakish coincidences about a Christmas song count?” Vala asked brightly.

“Good point.” Cam chimed in. “You have to admit it has gone from freaky to freakier.”

Her mouth full, Sam made an accepting gee-I-guess half-nod with her head.

Daniel rolled his eyes and gestured with his fork again. Teal’c’s threatening glare promised retribution should any Bolognese fall upon his meal but it didn’t deter Daniel.

“Look, maybe the scan happened on the first day of Christmas and maybe,” he conceded, “it was the Peartree and Partridge thing which convinced the scan that we loved fiercely enough to be entrusted with this. But,” he made another fervent motion with his fork, “I find it difficult to believe that the scan then went on to influence people in another part of the galaxy into giving Sam a statue of a two birds or a scientist into turning French people into bird dinosaurs.”

“We were also not four call girls.” Teal’c added.

Sam almost choked on a laugh.

“I guess it’s easy to start seeing something that isn’t there and start romanticising things.” Cam mused.

“You’re trying to argue that five wasn’t important yesterday and today we don’t have six geese scientists?” Vala argued passionately.

“I agree with Vala.” Sam said, pushing her plate away.

It was Daniel’s turn to choke. “You do?”

“There’s something going on.” Sam said firmly. “Maybe it isn’t related to whatever telepathic whammy scan these Coscorobans invented but something is going on that’s interesting; statistically the odds that events would produce some correlation with the song ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ for twelve days running is very remote. “

Vala beamed at Sam. Teal’c inclined his head in agreement.

Sam checked her watch. “I have to finish up my reports.” She gestured at Daniel. “I’m going to tell Jack ‘no’ on going into the nebula by the way.”

Daniel hurriedly swallowed his food as his eyes widened. “Why?”

“We need more information before we put the Hammond at risk taking it into a nebula where our sensors are compromised.” Sam stated authoritatively. “You’ve barely scratched the surface of the databases and I want to know more about the satellites, this telepathy scan thing and the Coscorobans before we head in. I did promise Jack I’d try to keep you from stumbling over another alien bad guy.”

“You know I preferred you when you used to immediately say yes to dangerous space races.” Daniel grumbled.

But she could see him accept her position in the way his gaze shifted from disgruntled to thoughtful. She left SG1 to finish the meal and headed to her quarters.

Jack’s usual email was waiting for her when she logged into her account.

“Re: Daniel’s report on the Geese Guys

Carter,

I’m assuming you’re going to say no to flying into a nebula when we hardly know a thing about the telepathic geese folk?

I’m not sure how I can argue that I sent you six geese eggheads but I’m going to claim I did anyway. Happy Sixth Day of Christmas!

Always, Jack x”

Sam smiled.

“Re: Daniel’s report on the Coscorobans

Sir,

I concur; we need more information before we investigate the satellites within the nebula. I suggest a full survey team be assigned to assist SG1 in mining the alien databases for information and any follow-up should be delayed until after the flight test of the X402.

Colonel Carter”

She sent a personal email with the rest of her thoughts.

“Jack,

You did request the Hammond for the scientific mission of studying the nebula. So arguably yes, you gave me six geese scientists.

Daniel has a theory that the telepathic scan may have approved of us on the first day of Christmas when you sent me Peartree and Partridge because it proved we loved fiercely enough for them to trust us.

Vala thinks it’s romantic.

So do I.

Love, Sam x”

Seventh Day

On the seventh day of Christmas…

“So,” said Sam taking in a steadying breath as she glared at Sanchez, “let me get this straight: this morning you decided that experimenting with the Ancient device, a device that turned three people into dinosaurs, was the answer to Doctor Jackson’s requirement by Homeworld Command that he gain more information about the Coscoroban people before a determination is made on whether to proceed with a mission to assess the satellites within the nebula.”

Sanchez fidgeted under Sam’s relentless glare.

Sam had ordered the young xenobiologist into an area of relative privacy by the walls of the ruins of the building that led to the biological database for her chewing out. Unfortunately, Sam was only too aware that the male members of SG20 were still lurking nearby along with an embarrassed Daniel, an amused Cam and a frowning Teal’c (it was all in his eyes).

“Colonel…”

“I haven’t finished, Doctor Sanchez.” Sam said tersely. “Because apparently your decision then led you to return briefly to the Gamma site where you appropriated the device without proper authorisation and I know this because before I was called down here, I had just read a report from Homeworld detailing the theft of the device since you didn’t even inform Doctor Hendricks that you were taking it.”

“I borrowed it!” Sanchez squeaked out, her hands moving in a flustered pacifying gesture that Sam ignored.

“Colonel Alain and Doctor Hendricks don’t have the same opinion.” Her lips tightened when Sanchez rolled her eyes. “To make things worse, you then returned and allowed seven female scientists and military personnel to think the experiment was sanctioned, changing them using the device before the power once again blew out.”

Sanchez blushed but her lips settled into a stubborn line. “They all consented, Colonel, and all were female to prevent the issue that occurred on the Gamma site.”

“You know nothing about this race!” Sam pointed out incredulous at the defence Sanchez was attempting. “You have no idea if same-sex pairings weren’t part of their reproduction! And regardless, you didn’t actually change these women into Coscorobans! You changed them into their ancient ancestor which seems to be a swan!” She straightened her shoulders and glared at Sanchez. “And because you didn’t take the minimum requirements such as changing them in a contained environment as soon as they got changed – they flew away!”

Sanchez was chagrined at that. “I didn’t think…”

“That’s right, Doctor Sanchez, you didn’t think.” Sam stated forcefully.

“With respect, Colonel,” Sanchez retorted angrily, “I believe you are reacting emotionally to events since one of the individuals changed is Doctor Fraiser and…” she stopped abruptly at the hard angry look Sam shot her.

“Oakley! Peel!” Sam barked across the space. The Sergeants came running along with Grogan. “Escort Doctor Sanchez back to Homeworld Command. She is confined to Homeworld to face an investigation into scientific misconduct.”

“My contract’s with the IOA! You don’t have the authority…” began Sanchez heatedly.

“I have plenty authority.” Sam broke in furiously, jerking her head at the two waiting Sergeants. “Get her out of my sight.”

Oakley and Peel immediately contacted the Hammond for beam-up.

The rest of SG1 wandered over as Grogan sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“What now, ma’am?”

Sam took another deep breath to calm herself. Sanchez was partially correct in accusing Sam of being emotionally compromised because Cassie was one of the changed women. Cassie would always be special to Sam; to SG1. But this wasn’t like the time Jack had gone missing and Sam had yelled at Bill Lee because it wasn’t just Cassie who was now a swan; Vala, Anna Casey, Captain Peartree, Jennifer Hailey, Lindsay Novak and Doctor Susan Cambridge. In short, one member of SG1, one archaeologist trying to make-up for her inaccurate original survey, the test pilot and the lead designer for the X402, the Hammond’s chief engineer and medical officer.

Sam clicked her earpiece. “Hammond, can you get a lock on the personnel changed into swans?”

“Yes, Colonel.” Phelps replied. “They’re about half a click from your location near to a large body of water.”

The reservoir they’d seen on the UAV; swans were waterfowl. They’d probably headed off for a swim, Sam thought sourly. But thank goodness for subcutaneous transponders.

“Beam them into a cargo hold and seal the doors.” Sam instructed. She clicked off the radio as Phelps confirmed her order.

“OK, so problem number one sorted.” Cam said brightly. “The swans are corralled.”

Grogan looked relieved. “Thanks, ma’am.”

“We still have problem number two.” Sam admitted. She looked around. “Who has the Ancient device?”

Daniel cleared his throat and handed it over to her. Sam examined it and blew out a frustrated breath. Her fix-it from a few days before had been wrecked.

“I need tools.” Sam said. “I’m going to beam back to the ship and work on this.”

“You were pretty harsh on Sanchez.” Daniel commented.

She looked over at Daniel incredulously. “You do realise that she did all this because she has a crush and wants to impress you?”

“I believe that is the reason for Daniel Jackson’s guilt in this matter, Colonel Carter.” Teal’c informed her briskly.

Sam’s lips twitched. “Indeed.”

“The guy who had a crush on you brought the entire Stargate system to a halt!” Daniel said defensively.

“Oh boy.” Cam murmured, taking his cap off to scratch his ear.

“At least Jay Felger had permission from the General!” Sam retorted. “Sanchez ignored every single scientific protocol that we have!”

Daniel conceded with a huff. “What do you think will happen to her?”

“I’m going to send her to Atlantis.” Sam stated firmly. McKay would either break her of her bad habits or have her running for the hills. He was useful like that.

Cam whistled. “That’s…”

“Inspired.” Teal’c inserted with a hint of a smirk.

“Now,” Sam said firmly, “I’m going back to the ship to…” she waved the device, “fix this.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Grogan said appreciatively.

She sent him a reassuring smile. “Jenn’ll be fine, Matt.”

And she was. Two hours later, Sam stood in the cargo bay with seven reformed human women.

“I flew!” Captain Peartree spread out her arms. “I actually flew! It was incredible!”

Sam felt a twinge of jealousy but pushed it down and nodded at the assembled group. “Everyone gets checked out by Doctor Lam. She’s waiting in the infirmary.”

Cassie wandered over to her as they all started to file out, Peartree happily babbling to Jennifer about the experience of flying.

“Sorry I worried you.” Cassie said sheepishly. “But it was a really interesting experience, Sam. You would have loved it.” Her eyes shone with excitement. “It was like being a passenger in an actual swan.”

“Uh-huh.” Sam slung an arm around her shoulder. “You get to tell Jack.”

“But…”

“No, we made this deal when you decided you wanted on a SG team.” Sam said lightly. “You do crazy stuff; you get to deal with Jack.”

Cassie sighed. “He’s never letting me off world again, is he?”

Sam laughed but secretly thought Cassie might have a legitimate worry. “You also get to tell your fiancé.”

Cassie rolled her eyes, smiling. “Jonas is going to be jealous. He’s never turned into a swan.”

“Neither have I.” Sam said but inwardly agreed with Cassie. Jonas Quinn loved new experiences. It still surprised Sam that Cassie and Jonas had ended up together. They had been close when Jonas had been on Earth, becoming fast friends, but Cassie had been too young and Jonas had mostly ignored the crush she’d had on him. They’d bonded as adults on a shared Langaran-Earth mission though and their relationship had quickly solidified into a real love story.

The rest of the day sped by in a rush. The disaster with the swans had meant morning meetings on the X402 had been postponed to the afternoon; reports from engineering and the infirmary had been delayed.

It was late by the time Sam checked her email.

“Sam,

Firstly, Cassie is never going off world again.

Secondly, Bill yelled at that Sanchez woman for a whole hour. I was kind of impressed. Do we still send scientists to Siberia? You know she actually said the words ‘no harm, no fowl?’

Thirdly, Cassie is never going off world again.

Fourthly, are the Geese Guys really Swans because hey, didn’t you have seven swans a-swimming this morning?

And lastly, never again.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Always, Jack x”

Sam uploaded the photo of the seven swans in the cargo hold and attached it to an answering email.

“Jack,

Firstly, Cassie is already off world as she’s tucked up in bed on the Hammond. She thought the whole thing was awesome, by the way.

Secondly, Bill is a man of hidden depths. And no, we don’t send scientists to Siberia but we are sending Sanchez to Atlantis.

Thirdly, see response above.

Fourthly, we don’t really know enough about the swan-like ancestor that the Coscorobans descended from to call them swans in the same sense as Earth swans but Earth swans and geese had a common ancestor. So yes, theoretically, we had seven swans a-swimming this morning but them trying to fight the V’Breeni statue was more amusing (see photo).

And lastly, Cassie and I love you too.

Sam x”

Eighth Day

On the eighth day of Christmas…

“…and we’ve completed the last of the computer simulations for the X402 flight test showing she should be able to perform the group fly-by with the F302s that General Vidrine wanted for the visiting VIPs.” Jennifer Hailey said with smug satisfaction.

The fly-by was completely unnecessary in Sam’s mind and inappropriate for a first test flight of her new baby. But Vidrine hadn’t gone for her ‘with all due respect, General, you do remember what happened with the X301’ and made it a direct order to put on a show.

So they would put on a show.

“Good,” said Sam, realising that Jennifer was waiting for a response, “and how is Captain Partridge…”

Her earpiece crackled.

“Bridge to Colonel Carter. Incoming message from Homeworld Command, Colonel. Should I pipe it to your office?”

Sam repressed the urge to roll her eyes as the ‘what now?’ flickered through her mind. She tapped her earpiece. “Thank you.” She gave Jennifer an apologetic smile. “Homeworld’s calling. I’ll catch up with you later, Major.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jennifer nodded and departed briskly, closing the door as she left recognising that Sam would need the privacy.

Sam turned to her computer and brought up the communication window. Jack was already waiting impatiently for her. He gave her a small wave.

“Carter.”

“Sir.”

They smiled at each other.

Walter cleared his throat in the background.

“So, the Langaran Stargate Command just called,” Jack made a vague gesture with one hand, “apparently their premier team has run into troubles on P4S988.”

The premier team of the Langaran Stargate programme was led by Jonas Quinn.

Sam’s nose wrinkled. “Isn’t that the planet with the weird Ancient marriage dome?” She vaguely remembered the report. SG1 had discovered the planet while Sam had been the Atlantis Expedition Leader. She was almost certain that it involved Vala getting trapped in the dome and Daniel having to compete with some of the locals to win her hand. She had a brief memory of a series of emails from the different SG1 members, all complaining in their own way that if Sam had been with them, Daniel wouldn’t have ended up marrying Vala (except for Vala who complained that Sam should have been there to stand as her matron of honour).

“That would be the one.” Jack agreed breezily. “The Langarans have requested your assistance in retrieving Jonas from the dome.”

“They do know I’m already married.” Sam replied with a raised eyebrow.

Jack smirked at her. “I may have pointed that out to the Ambassador,” he admitted, “but as the Ambassador pointed out to me, Daniel’s original report on the planet, which we shared with the Langarans during our last ‘we’re really sorry we commandeered your Stargate to call the stranded Destiny crew and send them supplies’ apology, was filled from head to toe with how if you had been there he wouldn’t have had to marry Vala.”

“Ah.” Sam sighed with understanding. “And I’m guessing sending me to help is going to be our latest ‘we’re really sorry we commandeered your Stargate’ apology?”

The commandeering fiasco had happened during one of her and Jack’s fishing vacations in Minnesota. They’d both gotten back to Washington to find out what had happened in their absence at the instigation of a bunch of stupid politicians spurred on by the late Senator Armstrong’s widow and the IOA’s head Carl Strom. To say Jack had been furious at their treatment of their old ally (as annoying and frustrating as the Langarans were, they had given them Jonas and relations had been much improved when they’d re-established official contact after the Ori war was over) was an understatement.

She understood in some ways. When Nicholas Rush had dialled the ninth chevron to escape a Lucian Alliance attack, Rebecca Armstrong had lost her husband and her daughter was trapped on an Ancient ship travelling millions and millions of light years away through other galaxies. The woman wanted her daughter home or safe and Sam respected that. What she didn’t respect was the behind-the-scenes politicking to get a decision Jack had made (which said they would only use the Langaran Stargate with its access to its naquadria planetary core to dial the Destiny only if the Langarans agreed to it) reversed in his absence.

Strom’s motivations had always been obvious. The head of the IOA had thought he’d score a political coup by achieving something Jack had said shouldn’t be done. The fallout had effectively ended Strom’s career because most of those on the mission had been given the incorrect impression it had Jack’s approval and the Langarans (and thank God for Jonas) had blamed everyone but Jack for the incident and now would only deal with him or the former members of SG1.

“‘Fraid so, Carter.” Jack said. “I need you geared up and ready to leave yesterday.”

“With your permission, sir, I’d like to bring SG20 with me.” Sam said quickly.

Jack stared at her. Sam arched one eyebrow and waited.

“Carter…”

“Sir, in the event that I cannot as Daniel postulated work out how to get a trapped individual out of the dome, then it makes sense to have Jonas’s fiancée be the one to take part in the competition.” Sam argued.

She tried to keep the look of exasperation off her face. Jack did accept that Cassie and Jonas were a couple – in theory. He just generally stuck his hands over his ears and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening whenever the subject was raised directly.

“Fine,” grumbled Jack, “but just so we’re clear if the worst comes to the worst and Cassie has to enter the competition,” he paused dramatically, “she’s under no obligation to win.”

Sam knew her amusement was written all over her face. “I’ll tell her you said good luck, sir. We’ll check in once we’re on P4S988.”

They signed off and Sam headed to the bridge to make arrangements for her departure with SG20.

P4S988 was beautifully sunny and Sam appreciated the sun warm on her skin and the light breeze through her blonde ponytail as she was greeted by the two women in Jonas’s team; his military advisor, Sian Terra, and his scientific advisor, Kianna Seer. His lingual expert, Errold Var, had stayed with Jonas in the dome for moral support.

“We’re glad you’re here, Samantha; Cassandra.” Terra said.

Sam could tell the petite redhead was concerned and annoyed.

“Why did Jonas enter the dome?” Cassie asked, tucking a lock of her own reddish-brown mane back under the cap she wore.

“Jonas thought he had a way of entering the dome without triggering the wedding trap.” Terra explained.

“It was a good theory.” Kianna said brightly. “It just didn’t work.”

“That’s my Jonas.” Cassie quipped, laughing.

Sam took in the sights as they walked briskly through the town. It was very reminiscent of the other villages that had been seeded by Merlin; pre-industrial and medieval yet with odd legacies of Ancient technology.

The white dome occupied the centre of the town green. They all made for the entrance. Sam’s gaze swept around the circular space. It was largely empty except for the altar in the middle and the milling townspeople. Jonas was trapped there behind a shimmering force shield of white. He had been sitting with his back resting against the altar but as soon as he saw Sam and SG20, he got to his feet.

He moved to stand just behind the force shield. “Sam! Cassie!” He waved at the rest of SG20. “Sorry about the fuss.” He said with a rueful grin. He motioned at the town’s mayor. “Sam, this is Vernon Bol. Vernon, my betrothed’s guardian, Samantha, and my betrothed, Cassandra Fraiser.”

“Mayor Bol,” Sam said respectfully, “may we have a word in private with Jonas?”

Bol, a squat looking man with a weak chin, nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! Now you are here we can prepare the competition!”

Sam waited until Bol and the rest of the townspeople had left before turning back to Jonas. “I can get…”

“No,” Jonas said hurriedly, “this is a sacred place to them and I only asked for Terra to ask for you because I thought Cassie would be off-world somewhere and unavailable. If I can get out of this without dismantling their technology, I’d like to do that.” His eyes shifted to Cassie.

She grinned at him. “You want me to fight for you, huh?”

“Only if you want to, Cass.” Jonas said seriously. “But…”

She shook her head. “No, we’re in agreement about local customs being respected; you know that.”

They both turned to Sam expectantly.

Sam cleared her throat. “This is your mission, Jonas, you make the calls. I guess we should invite everyone back in then?”

Vernon was quick to turn up again when they asked for him. “If you will come outside the competition will be held on the green because of the animals.”

“Animals?” asked Sam warily.

“Amber Cal was the first to enter the dome following Mister Quinn accepting the judgement of the Ancestors in the selection of his bride.” Vernon said pompously. “As our tradition demands she was the one to set the challenge.”

Sam vaguely recalled the rule from Daniel’s previous report.

“So what’s the challenge?” asked Cassie.

Vernon smiled thinly. “Perhaps we should go outside?”

Errold indicated he would stay with Jonas as did Grogan. The rest of them trooped outside the dome and frowned at the bovine-like creatures lined up on the green.

“Seven of our town’s eligible maidens have indicated they would like to compete,” Vernon said with false bonhomie, “so we have procured an eight bovi for you, Miss Cassandra. The winner will be the one who can milk the bovi most efficiently within ten parsecs.”

“I assume the milk will be measured by a neutral judge?” checked Sam.

“By the Ancestors themselves.” Vernon declared. “Each maiden will carry her milk into the temple and give it to Mister Quinn. The temple will then only allow the one who has won to pass through the barrier and claim her husband.”

Cassie grinned widely, stretched out her arms and hands in front of her. “Cool.”

“Are you sure you can do this, Cassie?” asked Sam sceptically.

“I used to milk the goat when I was little.” Cassie said shrugging. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

Sam sighed but waved her towards what appeared to be the bovi set up for Cassie. The ten parsecs was the equivalent of five minutes and it passed in a blur as the families spurred on the competitors. Sam made sure that she, Oakley and Peel yelled just as loudly for Cassie as the others did for their daughters. The dark-haired girl who’d set the challenge had an almost full bucket by the end of it but so did Cassie. It was going to come down to the two of them.

Everyone made their way back inside and each bucket was handed through the force shield to Jonas with solemnity. He bowed to each girl and thanked them for the honour they showed him in participating.

“It is obvious that only two girls produced enough milk to challenge.” Vernon declared. “As the first to enter the dome, Amber Cal will approach the force shield first.”

Sam held her breath as the brunette approached confidently. She reached the force shield and stretched out a hand only to be repelled by a surge of blue light.

“It is not Amber Cal.” Vernon said sadly.

Cassie straightened her shoulders and approached the force shield. She reached out a hand toward Jonas and he reached back…

The force shield fell.

Cassie skipped the last step into Jonas’s embrace and they hugged briefly before turning back to the gathered populace.

Jonas cleared his throat. “I would just like to thank everyone for this experience. My fiancée and I are honoured to have taken part in this sacred ritual and to have received its blessing on our marriage.”

Vernon beamed at Jonas. “Then come! We will feast and celebrate your forthcoming nuptials!”

Three hours later and two check-ins with Homeworld later, Sam staggered back to the Hammond with SG20 and a chirpy Jonas, who had somehow wrangled himself an Earth ‘we’re really sorry we tried to commandeer your Stargate apology’ invitation to the test flight of the X402. Sam figured he just wanted to spend time with Cassie.

She opened her email and was happy to see the usual message from Jack waiting for her.

“Carter,

Obviously I knew that you’d see eight maids milking when you went off to rescue Jonas’s ass.

Happy Eighth Day!

Always, Jack x”

Sam laughed and uploaded the picture that Peel had managed to take of Cassie milking the bovi.

“Jack,

If you ever walk into a marriage trap let’s hope I don’t have to milk a cow to prove I’m the best wife for you.

Love, Sam x”

Ninth Day

On the ninth day of Christmas…

Sam smoothed down the front of her service blues and briefly brushed a finger over the eagles that she wore. They were shiny and looked new but they had originally been Jack’s. She always thought of him whenever she wore them. She knew he had tucked away her father’s General stars for her to wear someday.

Sometimes she wondered if she would make it to General. She’d had a blessed career for the most part; an active member of SG1 for more years than she could count, head of Stargate R&D even while she had been TDA’d back to SG1 during the Ori crisis, leader of the Atlantis expedition for a year, and the CO of the Hammond. She’d also deputised for both the former SGC commander Hank Landry and for Jack at Homeworld during the year between Atlantis and the Hammond. It would be nice to get a set of stars but she couldn’t deny that she loved her current assignment.

She’d love it more if Jack was aboard and she got to see him every day, but at least with the Hammond they returned to Earth every three weeks and stayed one week. Jack always made sure his schedule aligned to hers so they’d have time together during her week on Earth. It was more than they’d had when she’d been on Atlantis.

She sighed unhappily. Jack had initially been scheduled to attend the flight test of the X402 but he had been requested by the President to attend an important Middle East strategy meeting back on Earth. She knew he was annoyed that he wouldn’t be able to attend and she missed him.

Still, even if Jack wasn’t attending, it didn’t mean that there was an absence of Generals or other VIPs. Hence the dress-up for herself and the senior staff.

Sam made her way out to the bridge. She hated being in the blues during operations. They weren’t particularly restrictive – the jacket left plenty of room for easy manoeuvre, the skirt wasn’t overly tight, the low heel shoes comfortable enough – yet she vastly preferred her operations jumpsuit.

Of SG1, only Cam and Teal’c were in attendance; the rest of the team was down on the planet continuing the trawl of the databases trying to find the information they needed to get the jaunt into the nebula authorised. Cam had remarked that morning that he had handed over Daniel and Vala babysitting duty to Grogan as a learning experience. Cam was in uniform and Teal’c in a smart suit with a silk grey tie and a Star Wars tie-pin that had been his Christmas gift from Cassie. Jonas stood alongside him in his official Langaran BDU.

Her Hammond team, comprised of Franklin, Marks and Hailey, were all decked out in their uniforms, and she nodded her approval as the on duty communications officer confirmed that Phelps had greeted the VIPs at the Stargate and they were ready to beam-up. Sam joined her officers and confirmed the beam-up.

Immediately Sam’s eyes went to the two unexpected Atlantis personnel at the back of the group. She yanked her eyes away and saluted as Franklin confirmed there was a General on deck. Vidrine smiled widely and saluted back.

“Colonel.”

“General.” Sam smiled warmly at him. “Welcome aboard the Hammond.”

“It’s our pleasure.” Vidrine turned to the people with him. “You remember Senator Morrow?”

Morrow was the new Stargate liaison to various Committees in Congress, taking over when the last Senator had died in an Alliance attack on the Pentagon. He was young, dynamic and sympathetic. He beamed at her. “It’s a real pleasure to be here, Colonel.”

“Senator.” Sam smiled warmly. Jack liked Morrow; Morrow was honest and forthright, and Jack appreciated that.

Vidrine continued the introductions. “You know Carl, of course.”

Carl Strom lowered his head briefly in acknowledgement. “Colonel Carter.”

“Director Strom.” Sam answered politely as she shook the outstretched hand of the Head of the IOA. “Good to see you again.”

“I am looking forward to seeing if your design does all that it says it can.” Strom replied.

Sam kept her smile with effort. “I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”

Vidrine cleared his throat. “You also know Jean-Pierre Michel…”

“Samantha!” The debonair Frenchman swept forward and kissed her hand effusively. “It is a delight to see you in person so I can thank you for all the effort you made saving my cousin and her husband from being the dinosaurs!”

“It was really no trouble.” Sam replied diplomatically, although she felt herself relax a little under his twinkling blue eyes.

“Your husband sends his regards.” Jean-Pierre continued ignoring the sour look on Strom’s face. “I cannot believe your President has requested his presence and so he cannot be with us today, but to say thank you properly for your help I offered to deliver to you a gift…” he gestured at his assistant who stood behind him and took a box from him swiftly, “and here it is!”

The gaily wrapped box was quickly handed over to an Airman to take to Sam’s quarters and she fervently hoped that it wasn’t three French hens.

Sam endured the rest of the IOA introductions (and wondered exactly how many of them it needed to witness the test flight). Finally, Vidrine got to the two personnel she wanted to greet.

“You obviously know Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay.” Vidrine said with amusement. “I’ve asked them to come along today to assess whether a squadron of 402s would be a good addition to the Atlantis expedition.”

“Colonel.” John grinned at her.

“Colonel.” Sam replied.

“Oh please don’t start that again.” Rodney pleaded with an accompanying hand wave between the two of them. “And can we get this started? Some of us have important work that we could be doing.”

“Good to see you too, Rodney.” Sam quipped.

Sam resisted the urge to smile as John elbowed Rodney less than discreetly and smiled in a charming benign way at the IOA guys which had most of them forgetting Rodney’s brusqueness.

“Let’s get to the observation deck.” Sam said brightly to the gathered group.

The next hour saw the majority of the guests glued to the large viewing windows as they watched Peartree and Partridge put the X402 through its paces. It was a beautiful machine; sleek wings angling down, sharp nose, compact body. It was a dull black colour allowing it to fade into the vastness of space with only the merest glimmer of starlight off its armour to give away its position. It had everything Sam had been able to build into a ship; stealth with an Ancient cloaking device, lasers designed from Asgard technology, a hybrid engine design that would enable it to go into hyperspace. But it was small enough to fit through Stargates and its manoeuvrability was well beyond the F302.

“Well, I’m sold.” John said quietly, coming to stand next to Sam as the final fly-by show got under way, the X402 joined by eight of F302s from the Hammond squadron. “It’s a great design. We can launch them from Atlantis directly through the ‘gate.” His hazel eyes met hers knowingly. “I’m guessing that was the plan, right?”

Sam shrugged. “It might have factored into it.” But she knew John was remembering a night somewhere in the middle of her command when they’d found themselves on the balcony drinking a beer and John telling her of his wish that the 302s fitted through the ‘gates.

“Huh. They might not be entirely useless.” Rodney stated, folding his arms, his chin lifting belligerently. But she could read in his eyes that he was impressed by the way he’d grabbed the monitor tracking all of the data streaming in from the X402s online computer earlier.

“I can’t wait to fly one.” John confessed sheepishly.

“There’s a surprise.” Rodney teased him. “You can’t wait to fly something.”

“I can’t wait either.” Cam moved up to stand on Sam’s other side. “I don’t suppose there’s a chance of getting a ride once Peartree gives up the keys?”

“Maybe.” Sam grinned at them. “But you have to get in line behind the rest of the Hammond squadron.”

“Aw, come on!” Cam groaned.

“I’m only here for the day!” protested John. “And…and,” he said triumphantly, “how much better can Rodney and I make a determination about the X402 if not from getting our own personal ride in her?”

“Oh no!” Rodney retorted. “Leave me out of it! I’m perfectly happy to wait.”

“No, you’re not.” John pointed out. “You hate waiting.”

Rodney looked for a moment as though he was going to argue before he conceded under John’s knowing look with an exaggerated eye roll. “Fine. I hate waiting.” He glanced at Sam and gestured at John. “Just…just say yes already before he gives you the puppy eyes.”

“I don’t have puppy eyes.” John said defensively.

“Oh, you so do!” Rodney shot back.

“I have to go with Rodney on this one.” Sam said lightly, enjoying their familiar banter.

“Now that’s disturbing!” Cam drawled.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow as he joined the group. “Indeed.”

“Oh, come on!” John said pointing out of the window at the weaving forms of the F302s around the X402. “She’s the belle of the ball! Who wouldn’t want to dance with her?”

“I might have known you’d want to play Prince Charming,” sniffed Rodney.

“Does that make you Buttons or the Fairy Godmother?” asked Cam with amusement.

“I believe Colonel Carter fulfils the role of Fairy Godmother as she will grant Colonel Sheppard’s wish to dance with the X402.” Teal’c said sagely.

She held up a hand before an argument could break out. “John, you and Rodney can have ten minutes with her to make an assessment.”

“Seriously?” asked Rodney as John grinned delighted and Cam pouted.

“This looks like a much more interesting discussion than the one I have been stuck having for the last ten minutes.” Jean-Pierre said as he approached them with General Vidrine.

“We were just discussing the merits of Colonel Sheppard taking the X402 out for a flight once the test is done.” Sam stated.

“Ah, excellent!” Jean-Pierre said, clapping John on the shoulder. “How else would you be able to make such an important determination of whether to have these in your arsenal, hmmm, Colonel?”

“My thoughts exactly.” John beamed at the Frenchman.

“Good call, Colonel,” Vidrine nodded at Sam, “or should I say Colonels?” He motioned out to space where the X402 continued to dance. “I’m impressed, Colonel Carter. How soon can we move to the next phase?”

“Mass production will take three months to shift into full operation complete assuming we have budget, materials and resources.” Sam confirmed. “There’s also the question of pilot training and…”

Daniel burst onto the observation deck, Vala skipping along in his wake. He was grinning widely and gesturing with a folder filled with paper. “Coordinates! I have coordinates!”

“We can find the geese people!” Vala said happily.

The IOA VIPs looked at them with shock.

Sam swallowed an exasperated laugh and smoothed over the interruption with the VIPs even as she clasped Daniel’s arm and led him out to have an official debrief somewhere else.

Later, in her quarters, Sam reviewed the footage of the flight of the X402 taken with cameras on the outside of the Hammond. Her baby really was the belle of the ball, she mused, as she followed its path through the eight F302s that it had flown with.

She glanced at the snow globe sat on her bedside table and the nine figurines skating around an icy pond that made her think of Jack’s cabin – their cabin. She picked up the note that had accompanied it.

“Carter,

Maybe we have to rely on weird coincidences for the rest but I saw this and couldn’t resist.

Happy Ninth Day of Christmas!

Always, Jack x”

She smiled and picked up her laptop again. She uploaded the video file of the flight to an email.

“Jack,

I love the snow globe.

The universe did give us nine ladies dancing too – check out the X402 with the F302s today.

Maybe this was just meant to be.

Love, Sam x”

Tenth Day

On the tenth day of Christmas…

“Easy does it, Major.” Sam ordered as the Hammond nosed its way into the golden mist of the nebula.

There was the usual churn of excited butterflies in her tummy, the weight of the lives of her crew on her shoulders and the familiar buzz of adrenaline lighting up her veins as it always did when Sam had something new to explore.

“How are the sensors doing, Lindsay?” Sam asked, throwing her question to the back and the engineering console.

“We’ve got limited capability, Colonel.” Lindsay informed her calmly. Long gone were the days when Lindsay Novak would hiccup her way through crises. “But they’re all functional and at full strength.”

“Can’t we go faster?” asked Vala plaintively, leaning on the back of Marks’ chair with a pout.

“No.” Sam said firmly.

“But we know the exact coordinates of the Coscoroban satellites.” Vala argued.

“Maybe but we don’t know if there’s anything between here and there.” Sam argued.

Teal’c inclined his head. He stood next to Sam’s chair like the stalwart sentinel he was. “Indeed.”

“You know what this reminds me of?” drawled Cam, hovering to the side of Marks’ console and giving away just how much he wished he was the one flying. “Driving in the pitch black in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter. You might know where you’re going to but you don’t know the road and you’re not sure if you’re going to end up in a ditch or get surprised by the local wildlife springing out at you.”

Vala conceded the debate with a huff and opened her mouth.

“Don’t say it!” Daniel folded his arms, his eyes glued to the forward screen. He glanced over his shoulder at Vala briefly. “If you say ‘are we there yet’ just once I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“Well, that has possibilities.” Vala noted.

“Isn’t this where the parents suggest tipping them out on the side of the road?” Cam asked loudly.

Sam flashed him a quick smile. “Phelps, connect me with the Hammond puddlejumper.”

They’d left the survey team on the planet with SG20 at the Stargate and a couple of F302s for good measure. A cloaked puddlejumper remained in orbit to act as a communications relay between the planet and the Hammond. It was likely that communications would be affected by the nebula but Sam was hoping that with some tweaking they could at least do the relay.

“Peartree here, ma’am.” The pilot’s voice was filled with easy assurance.

“First check-in, Captain.” Sam said. “We’ll check-in every thirty minutes from here on out.”

“Understood, Colonel.” Peartree replied. “We’ll be waiting for your call. Puddlejumper, out.”

It was almost thirty minutes later that they made it to the first set of coordinates.

“External lights on full.” Sam ordered. “Full sensor sweep ahead.”

The egg shaped satellite rose up on front of them; a smooth oval shape in a pale grey.

“We’re reading some kind of power source in the upper part of the, uh, egg, Colonel.” Lindsay reported.

“Send usual first contact hails.” Sam ordered. They couldn’t assume that there was no-one on board.

“Negative response, Colonel.” Phelps said. “Even with the addition of the communication Doctor Jackson provided for the Coscorobans.”

Sam motioned at Cam. “Looks like you have a go.”

SG1 along with Jennifer Hailey filed from the bridge to get ready. Cam had asked Sam to go with them originally and she’d been tempted. But the Hammond was in a nebula blindfolded and with its hands tied behind its back in many ways and her duty was clear. Hailey was her protégé; brilliant in her own way and more than qualified to provide the scientific expertise that SG1 might require in exploring the satellite.

“We’re ready for beam out.” Cam radioed.

“Maintain radio contact, Cam.”

“Roger that.” Sam nodded at Phelps.

There was silence for a long moment and Sam felt the catch of her breath in her throat – had something gone wrong?

“We’re here.” Cam’s voice came over the audio channel loudly. “Wherever here is.”

“Breathable air.” Hailey confirmed.

Sam could imagine them taking off the breathing gear, stowing it away as they regathered themselves ready for exploration.

“OK, so this is creepy.” Cam commentated. “Shadowy corridors…minimal lighting.”

“There’s no markings of any kind.” Daniel added. “No directions, nothing but blank walls.”

“We’re approaching the energy source.” Hailey confirmed.

“Bingo!” Cam said and Sam felt a rush of irritation as she waited for him to expand on the finding.

“It’s…incredible.” Daniel breathed out in wonder.

Sam hit the reply button. “Someone want to tell us exactly what you’ve found over there?”

“It is a stasis chamber, Colonel Carter, containing many of the beings we know as the Coscorobans.” Teal’c replied.

“They really do look like geese.” Vala commented.

“I have something! There’s one chamber here with ten individuals and from the sign that’s been left this is the ruling council.” Daniel said.

“They have their own power source separate to the main one the Hammond identified.” Hailey confirmed. “We should be able to revive them.”

“Do we want to revive them?” Cam asked bluntly.

Sam appreciated the question. She remembered Daniel possessed by the ruler of a people who had essentially done something similar to the Coscorobans and preserved their people in stasis; the leader had been arrogant and self-serving. But it wasn’t her call and she could hear Daniel’s impassioned argument that it was the right thing to do even as she debated it inwardly.

“Cam?” prompted Sam.

“I guess we’re waking them up.” Cam stated dryly.

Sam motioned at Phelps. “I’m sending you an extra security team and a medical team to assist.” The replacement for Phelps was already radioing the instruction to the infirmary.

The next few hours flew by as the team on the satellite revived the ruling council; five pairs of mated couples, one of whom comprised the lead scientists who had devised the satellites. Eventually, everyone was beamed back aboard the Hammond to discuss the next steps.

M’Rau and Amrak, the lead scientists, were the first to greet Sam as she entered the conference room. The Coscorobans were a tall, graceful people. They had feathers over their skulls and the backs of their hands – potentially elsewhere but the rest of their bodies were covered in a long tunic and pants combination. Their faces were pointy, noses and mouths retaining a hint of the beak their ancestors had no doubt had.

M’Rau’s beaky face split open in a wide smile, her grey feathered head inclining. “Colonel. I have waited these long days to meet you.”

Sam smiled tentatively and accepted the outstretched feathered hands, clasping them gently in her own. “I’m pleased to meet you too.”

“You have an exceptional clutch, Colonel.” M’Rau said.

“A clutch being?” questioned Sam curiously.

“Ah, your words…team, family?” M’Rau cocked her head to the side, her black eyes blinking. “It is unclear to us.”

“I think both work in this case.” Sam said delighted. “Please sit.”

“We would like to revive the rest of our people.” M’Rau said without preamble. “We have supplies and emergency housing facilities stored on all the satellites. If your ship could tow each to the planet…”

“We’ll be happy to help you if we can.” Sam confirmed. “We’ll need to do the calculations and, forgive me, but do the satellites have their own shield for re-entry or…”

Hailey cleared her throat. “Ma’am, there may be an issue in being able to revive the population and maintain the required power needed for the shields to sustain themselves. During my access to the main computer I noticed that the power units are almost all used. The power requirements to bring the satellite back online are immense.”

She slid her computer over to Sam.

Sam’s eyes quickly took in the calculations. They had naquadah generators they could use but they’d run out of power before the satellite was fully lit up. Except…

“I think I have an idea.” Sam said.

It was late when Sam finally managed to call it a night.

The Hammond was still inside the nebula having checked out the remaining four satellites and determined the power requirements for each. The ten Coscoroban leaders were all delightful and thrilled that they had successfully managed to save their people – and that those that had found them were compassionate and willing to help them. She opened her latest email from Jack sent on via the relay with the puddlejumper.

“Re: Your idea

Carter,

The V’Breeni are delighted to have you use their gift to revive an ancient population of geese folk.

I think they’re planning another gift for you.

Maybe this will make the ten geese leaders leap for joy?

Happy Tenth Day!

Always, Jack x”

Sam grinned, opened a new email and tagged on the picture of the ten Coscoroban leaders.

“Jack,

I don’t know about the Coscorobans but I definitely feel joyful that for once they’re not an alien bad guy.

Wish you were here.

Love, Sam x.”

Eleventh Day

On the eleventh day of Christmas…

It wasn’t until they were towing the fifth Eghkt – and Daniel was the only one who’d managed to pronounce the Coscoroban name for the satellite as far as Sam knew – that her mind strayed to the twelve days of Christmas and the lack of anything remotely close to eleven pipers piping happening that day.

Sam sighed and gazed out of the forward screen at the haze of nebula gold that the Hammond was navigating through slowly – the Eghkt secure in its tow following on behind.

It had been a very busy day. She had essentially designed and built a super-naquadah generator to accommodate the greater capacity requirements for the Eghkts’ needs. The V’Breeni statue had been dismantled and reformed into five huge blocks, each of which was included in one of the new generators. They worked perfectly. One by one, each Eghkt was brought online to power shields and taken to the planet where the Hammond, or the Apollo which had been deployed to assist, placed them gently into position on the Southern continent near to the large reservoirs that would provide water. Once the Eghkt was secure on the planet’s surface, the Eghkt’s operations staff were swiftly brought out of stasis to enable the rest of the civilian population to wake to a secure and comfortable environment complete with food that had also been held in stasis storage.

It was all going very smoothly and Sam admired the Coscoroban leadership more and more as the day progressed. She had no doubt that within very short order the Coscorobans would rebuild their world and the Eghkts would become historical relics, revered for their part in helping to keep their population alive, and the continuation of their science, culture and history. She hoped Earth would still be an ally in that future since Daniel had been tasked with establishing a formal treaty between the Coscorobans and Earth. He was in his element and Sam had seen the rest of SG1 look on indulgently as he revelled in a positive first contact. He and the rest of SG1 had stayed behind with the last Eghkt to provide additional assistance.

Sam spared a thought for the Destiny crew. Those that had fled to Destiny when Rush had dialled the ninth chevron had entered stasis some months before to survive the journey between galaxies. She hoped they made it; hoped that their stasis would be as successful as the Coscorobans.

Beside her M’Rau coughed – a signal Sam had learned that M’Rau would speak.

“You are deep in thought, Samantha.” M’Rau enquired with a cocked feathered head.

“I was just admiring how things have progressed today.” Sam admitted, turning in her command chair to smile at the Coscoroban. She and M’Rau had swiftly developed a firm friendship; both leaders, both scientists, both women. They had a lot in common.

“It has this far gone to plan,” M’Rau said, her beaky face smiling back at Sam warmly, “but we should not count the clutch before it is laid.”

“We have a saying that you shouldn’t count your eggs before they hatch.” Sam confirmed. She rolled her shoulders to ease out the kinks.

“I did not realise that your species laid eggs.” M’Rau said.

Sam swallowed the urge to laugh as Marks choked on a chuckle beside her. “No, our reproduction is internal but we have several other species on our planets that lay eggs.”

“Remarkable.” M’Rau said brightly. “I am looking forward to learning about your planet, Samantha.”

Sam nodded in agreement. While the Hammond retrieved the last Eghkt from the nebula, the Apollo would move the Stargate closer to the Eghkrts on the planet making Stargate travel between the worlds possible.

“You were also thinking of the number eleven quite strongly.” M’Rau commented.

Sam tried hard not to blush. The Coscoroban telepathy only picked up on their surface thoughts and only if they were in close proximity to a human. It was disconcerting and slightly embarrassing because they had no concept of internal privacy as their entire race were telepathically linked and thus everything was out in the open so they assumed no issues with questioning what they picked up from humans. But it wasn’t threatening and having an ally be so open and honest with them was in some ways refreshing.

“I was thinking about the number eleven.” Sam conceded. “We have a song on Earth called the Twelve Days of Christmas – Christmas is a…a religious holiday for some people. The song details a…someone sending a gift comprising of the number related to the day. Today is the eleventh day of Christmas and so…”

“You are expecting your mate to send you something that conforms with the song?” asked M’Rau bluntly.

Sam did blush at the term ‘mate.’ She wrestled with her answer, not wanting to put too much of her relationship with Jack on show for her crew. They all knew she and Jack were married but there was a difference between knowing and knowing the intimate details of their relationship. She sighed as she settled for as much as she had shared with SG1.

“Well, not exactly. I mean, my husband, um, mate, did send me something on the first day but he wasn’t going to attempt the whole twelve. But then we’ve had some strange coincidences each day since such as my being gifted with a statue of two birds on the second day by the V’Breeni, and…”

“You were anticipating the number eleven would have meaning today.” M’Rau gave a soft chirp of approval. “How wonderful.”

“So far nothing though.” Sam mustered a smile and tried to cover her disappointment. “It was a long shot that there would be something every day. I mean, statistically the odds are…” she cut herself off before revealing that she had actually calculated the exact odds. “Anyway, I guess it’s not going to happen today.”

“Not unless you make it happen.” M’Rau commented with a graceful dip of her head.

Not unless she made it happen.

Of course. How stupid was she, Sam berated herself. Just because the universe hadn’t come up with something that fitted with the song, it didn’t mean that Sam herself couldn’t simply send Jack something with the number eleven – just as Jack had sent her the snow globe on the ninth day.

Sam grinned. “You’re right.”

Marks cleared his throat. “I believe Lieutenant McKeown has a set of bagpipes in his quarters, Colonel.”

“But it doesn’t have to be literal, right?” Phelps chimed in from the other side of the bridge seats before Sam could reply. “It just has to be something with the number eleven.”

“It could be pictures of eleven pipes.” Lindsay offered from the engineering console behind Sam.

Sam glanced back sharply and raised her eyebrows a touch as she returned her gaze forward. She was torn between embarrassment at her personal business becoming ship’s business, and bemusement at how quickly her crew had jumped in to support her. “Thank you all for the suggestions, but…”

“Incoming communication on the emergency channel,” Phelps interrupted her with a look of apology, “it’s the Apollo, Colonel.”

“On screen.” Sam said.

Colonel Abraham Ellis came into fuzzy view. Ellis was military through and through, but he had a good sense of humour and he was a good man underneath the military bluster. “Colonel Carter.”

“Colonel.” Sam returned the greeting. “What’s this about?”

“We have Jakrian warbirds entering the system.” Ellis informed her briskly. “We can’t get a lock on the number but it’s multiple, and their course suggests they’re heading our way. I’ve reported to Homeworld and am awaiting orders. I wanted to bring you in the loop.”

“ETA?” Sam said sobering rapidly. The Jakrian warbirds were the equivalent of the Hammond or the Apollo. The Jakrians had more of them though and they were designed for war rather than exploration; weapons, manoeuvrability. Doctor Coombs had compared them to Klingon warbirds and the allusion had stuck. In all aspects the Jakrians outmatched them but Earth had come up against more powerful ships before and survived, and they had even come up against Jakrian warbirds and survived.

“They’ll be in weapons range in twenty-one hours.” Ellis said tersely.

“We’ll be at the planet in one hour.” Sam informed him. “We’ll rendezvous then.”

“Roger that.” Ellis signalled his comms officer and the connection blinked out.

“Samantha, who are the Jakrians?” M’Rau asked, a serious chirrup escaping her.

“The Jakrians are an alien race we came across seven months ago.” Sam said. “They’re advanced technologically but are extremely xenophobic. They hadn’t explored beyond their own solar system but when they realised the universe was populated with other alien races they decided to wipe us out.”

“May I see?” M’Rau asked plaintively.

Sam realised she was asking for a telepathic connection. “How, uh…”

“Bring your memories of the Jakrians to the forefront of your mind, Samantha.” M’Rau said. “I will do the rest.”

Sam nodded, retrieving memory after memory; Daniel’s account of his first encounter and the torture they’d put him through, the first battles on worlds near to the Jakrian home system, the Hammond’s own encounter with a warbird – which they’d won because Sam had been able to pinpoint the weakness in the warbird’s shields to beam across an explosive device…

It only took a moment.

M’Rau inhaled sharply. “They dare!” Her black eyes gleamed with anger.

“I’m sorry you’ve been brought into the conflict between us and the Jakrians.” Sam said sincerely. “We’ll do everything we can to defend your planet.”

M’Rau waved away her words with a feathered hand. “They would attack us eventually, would they not? We will stand beside you.” Her beaky face suddenly took on a feral expression. “We are not without explosive devices of our own, Samantha, and we are very territorial.”

The remaining hours of the day sped by in a rush of activity.

The placement of the last Eghkt was overshadowed by the war conference that had taken place on the Hammond. The Coscorobans had insisted that Sam lead the defence and she had accepted. They had a plan, a very good solid plan, and in all likelihood it would work even with what they were facing…

Sam sighed and picked up the report that lay on her bunk again.

Sensors confirm the approach of eleven Jakrian warbirds.

Not the way she had wanted the number of eleven to have manifested, Sam mused tiredly. She shook her head fiercely as she recalled M’Rau’s words to her on the bridge – that she could make her own eleven – and opened up her laptop. She reread Jack’s email to her first.

“Carter,

I wish I was with you but I know you’re going to do great because you’re you, and you blow up solar systems and take down warlords and invent computer programmes that dial Stargates.

You can handle eleven Jakrian warbirds.

Always, Jack x”

Sam traced over the words with her fingers and pressed the reply button.

“Jack,

Eleven things I love about you…

The way you look in uniform…because that was the first thing I noticed.

Your eyes…the second thing I noticed.

Your sense of humour…because you made me laugh in that first meeting and you’ve been making me laugh ever since.

Your compassion…because I know you took Daniel home when we came back from Abydos that night and gave him a place to stay and a friend.

Your passion…because without your words and your sincerity Teal’c would not have saved us that day.

Your intelligence…because I find your strategic brain very sexy.

Your loyalty…because I can count on you, if not to find me, to never stop looking.

Your honesty…because I can count on you to always tell me how it is.

Your trust in me…because you believe in me, I believe in me, and somehow eleven warbirds doesn’t seem so insurmountable after all.

Your love of fishing…because it’s you and it’s us and it’s where we’re headed when I’m home next week.

And lastly, I love the way you love me with everything you have and everything you are…because I love you that way too.

Love, Sam x”

Twelfth Day

On the twelfth day of Christmas…

Sam kept perfectly still in her command chair. It didn’t look good for her to fidget and be visibly nervous in front of her crew.

Despite the fact that she wanted to fidget and was nervous, very nervous.

She was always nervous before a battle.

Always had doubts about her ability to lead and command.

It had always been a struggle balancing the military side of her work with the scientist; deciding that she wanted command and leadership in addition to her research and field work. She’d joined up in a haze of ambition to simply pilot a shuttle into space; she’d fought for her wings just like any other female officer – with difficulty and fighting against ingrained prejudices about women in a military environment.

And then the Stargate programme had happened, taking her away from the skies but offering something more in recompense: space in all of its wonderful glory.

Not immediately.

Not right away.

Not until Jack and Daniel had gone through the wormhole without her that first time and discovered Abydos and the Goa’uld.

Not until Apophis had forced Earth into recognising the threat hadn’t blown up with Ra and Stargate Command had been built by George Hammond on the foundation of the team he’d put together based on his own first meeting with them back in 1969; SG1.

And Sam had slowly and steadily learned leadership under Jack’s example and wanted to be the kind of leader that inspired others the way Jack inspired her. She had carefully taken in all the lessons on strategy and tactics she could glean from him and Teal’c; had with their encouragement taken command more and more, wanted to take command more and more until she was suddenly there – SG1 leader, R&D leader, Atlantis leader, the CO of the Hammond…

She would never be the natural Jack was at strategy.

She would never be as commanding as Teal’c.

She would never be the silent steady presence of George Hammond but they had all taught her well and she would use every lesson to protect her family from the hatred of the Jakrians. SG1 and SG20 weren’t with her; they were on the planet ensuring the planetary defences were working in case plan A didn’t work.

“Jakrian ships coming into communications range, Colonel.” Phelps informed her briskly.

The bridge was unnaturally silent; tense, anticipating the battle to come.

Sam pressed the buttons to send the communication and nodded at M’Rau.

“Jakrian armada, this is M’Rau of the Eghktian Alliance aboard the Earth vessel, the USS Hammond. You are approaching the planet Egh. If your intention is not hostile, cease your approach and talk with us.”

“Incoming communication, audio and visual.” Phelps confirmed. “But they haven’t stopped.”

“Main screen.” Sam ordered. She got up and followed M’Rau but stayed back allowing the Coscoroban leader to take point. It was their planet.

The screen flared to life revealing a dark bridge. The Jakrian commander glared out at them. His head was covered with brown feathers and there was a sharper angle to his face where a beak resided instead of a nose and mouth. His eyes widened at the sight of M’Rau but they settled back into their glare rapidly.

“You are not Jakrian.” The commander declared.

“We are not.” M’Rau’s head cocked to the side. “And you are so angry, hatchling. So much hate for something that it isn’t your norm and that you believe inferior.” She gave a soft coo. “No love at all just duty and obligation and rules to follow to maintain order in the Jakrian world of warriors. How sad.”

The Jakrian commander gave a sharp echoing cry and lurched out of his seat. “Get out of my head!”

M’Rau fixed him with a sharp stare. “Get out of my solar system.”

“You are not Jakrian and will be destroyed!” The commander snarled.

“We are not Jakrian and you may attempt to destroy us but you will fail, hatchling.” M’Rau said derisively. “Fly away while you still have wings to do so.”

“You do not order me to do anything.” He snapped back.

“Colonel Carter,” M’Rau said indicating for Sam to step forward, “I am formally asking for Earth’s assistance in stopping the Jakrian armada.”

“You have it.” Sam confirmed, staring down the monitor at the Jakrian.

He made a dismissive grunt. “You have but one pitiful Earth ship.” He said. “It will not last long.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “The last time my ship met one of yours in battle, the Jakrian was the one that did not last long.” She smirked. “But if you think you can do better then take your best shot.”

The signal was cut.

“I fear that the hatchling has much to learn.” M’Rau said as she made her way back across the bridge and Sam resumed her seat.

“Much.” Sam agreed with amusement despite the circumstances. “Weapons range?”

“Five minutes.” Phelps said tersely.

“Hold steady.” Sam said firmly. “Shields up. Arm weapons.” She hit the comms button. “All crew to battle stations! This is not a drill!”

“Jakrian warbirds coming into range now.”

“Apollo, now!” Sam ordered. “All Egh vessels decloak now!”

In space, the Apollo left the nebula where it had been hiding to take position behind the Jakrian warbirds; the ten Egh vessels – stored safe and secure in the Eghkts during the long stasis of the Coscorobans – decloaked; white gleaming arcs forming a circle that linked the Apollo and the Hammond and locked the Jakrians into the centre.

Twelve allied vessels to the eleven Jakrian warbirds.

“Target the nearest ship! Fire at will!” Sam ordered briskly, adrenaline rushing through her so much she could feel the buzz of it on her skin.

“Direct hit!” Phelps said. “Three Jakrian warbirds are down!”

The Hammond rocked under enemy fire and Sam held onto her seat.

“Hold position! Pick a target! Continue firing!” Sam ordered.

“Shields down to sixty percent!” Lindsay shouted over the alarms.

“Rotate frequencies.” Sam ordered.

M’Rau coughed. “My sister ship has failing shields to our left due to a direct hit.”

“Extend shield bubble around the Egh!” Sam instructed Lindsay who gave a nod and made it happen.

“Two more warbirds are down.” Phelps said grimly. “Incoming communication from the Apollo!”

“Colonel,” Ellis’ frantic voice came across the radio, “Apollo’s life support has been hit. We’re losing stability.”

Sam swallowed hard as across the battle before her through the forward screens she could see the Apollo drifting from its position. “Get your people out of there, Abe!”

“Beam to the nearest Egh, Colonel!” M’Rau said swiftly. “We will provide safe landing place.”

“Understood! Ellis, out.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

“We have a couple of runners, heading for the gap.” Phelps noted.

“Close them down.” Sam ordered.

“Three more Jakrian warbirds are down.” Marks informed her.

M’Rau cleared her throat. “Sister ship is confirming that they took out one runner.”

“One is entering hyperspace.” Marks noted. “Permission to pursue?”

“Let it go.” Sam said briskly. “Status of the Apollo crew?”

M’Rau gave a chirrup. “Sister ship confirms they have all the crew safe.”

“Last Jakrian warbir…Colonel, I’m reading an energy build-up in the Jakrian’s engine system!” Phelps snapped out hurriedly.

“All vessels move to a safe distance!”

Marks’ hands were already moving over his console, the Hammond already shifting away taking with it the Egh caught in its shield.

A moment later, the space in front of them erupted in a flash of white as the Jakrian warbird exploded and took out everything around it.

The Hammond rocked under the ripple through subspace.

And then it was silent except for the eerie blare of the alarm.

Sam breathed out and adjusted her position in her chair. “Have all vessels report. I want damage reports from all departments.” She slipped out of her chair. “And turn that alarm off!”

She made her way to the windows and looked out at the devastation; chunks of Jakrian warbirds drifting across her vision. How many had been killed?

There was a lump in her throat as she considered the question.

M’Rau drew up beside her. “That you regret the loss, Samantha, is to your credit.”

Sam breathed out, a rush of gratitude for the understanding. “We should clean-up.” The Apollo spun in space; charred and damaged but they could fix it – the crew was safe. But they also needed to contact the planet, and Homeworld, and check the debris for booby traps and…and a whole lot more.

Sam repressed the urge to sigh, straightened her shoulders and went to work.

It was late evening by the time Sam found herself alone in her office. They were parked on the planet for the night; the Apollo beside the Hammond on the stretch of land beside the reservoir and in front of the newly moved Stargate.

Sam frowned at her laptop when she realised that there was no message from Jack. It wasn’t too surprising. He was busy and it wasn’t that unusual for them to miss a night exchanging emails because they’d gotten caught up doing something else but…

Sam bit her lip and opened her email to send a message herself.

A cough at the doorway had her raising her head and smiling. “M’Rau.”

“Are you not joining the festivities in your eating place, Samantha?” M’Rau asked, her feathered head cocked to the side inquisitively.

There was a party in the mess. Sam knew her crew needed to unwind and they’d been joined by the Apollo personnel for the night.

“Later, perhaps,” Sam waved a hand at her laptop, “I’m just going to send Jack a message.”

“Ah, your mate.” M’Rau murmured. Her eyes shone suddenly with understanding. “You are sending him something with the number twelve?”

“Pictures of twelve fish.” Sam said with a blush. “He loves fishing so…”

“May I speak with you a moment?” M’Rau asked almost hesitantly.

“Of course.” Sam ignored her tiredness and waved the Coscoroban inside.

M’Rau entered the office and closed the door. “You are aware that the satellites were set up to initiate a telepathic scan to determine whether to reveal the reality of them to you.”

“Yes. Daniel discovered the information in one of the databases.” Sam said softly.

“The minds of the leadership were woken when a ship would come into orbit. We once felt the touch of those you call Ancients and once the touch of the Goa’uld. The latter were evil and self-absorbed; the former far too clinical and detached in their bonds. And then we felt you, Samantha,” M’Rau said, “and it was your bonds with all around you that swayed us. Your love for Jack; your maternal caring for Cassandra; the duty to your people; your sisterly affection for those you call your family, the team you name SG1. Each day you have spent beside us, Samantha, these bonds have defined you. You are a worthy ally and I am proud to be your friend and to have stood beside you in battle today.”

Sam blinked back her shock and felt truly touched by M’Rau’s words; she knew the truth of them.

It had started with SG1, with the four of them, long before she and Jack had slipped from attraction into love. She, Jack, Daniel and Teal’c had become family and made others family like Cassie, Jonas, Cameron and Vala along the way; they’d gathered up others like Teal’c’s son and Bra’tac along the way; mourned Sam’s father, Janet and George Hammond as the years had gone by.

But the web went beyond them to the men and women of the programme who served with them – command personnel like Walter and Siler, or SG team leaders like Dixon and Reynolds, pilots like Peartree and Partridge, even Generals like Landry and Vidrine, medical professionals like Carolyn Lam and Anna Brightman, and the civilian scientists…Bill Lee, Jay Felger, Simon Coombs and so many others…

And the Atlantis team – a family of its own out in Pegasus with Rodney, John, Teyla and Ronon at the heart of it, gathering in Carson Beckett, Jennifer Keller, Evan Lorne and Radek Zelenka – even Richard Woolsey while they mourned their own losses like Elizabeth Weir and Aiden Ford.

Sam thought of all their allies – the Nox and the much missed Asgard, the Tok’ra and the fallen Tollan, the people of Cimmeria and the Land of the Light, Camelot and the Sodan…Abydos where it had all started. The Coscorobans would be a welcome addition to the ranks of those Earth called friend.

“I’m proud that you call me friend.” Sam replied to M’Rau.

M’Rau chirruped in delight.

A few minutes later, Sam found herself alone again and focused on her email. She wanted to put the pictures in a slideshow to send to Jack with some drums in the background. It was eclectic but Jack would get it. She bit her lip as she attached the file to the email.

“Jack,

Seems I couldn’t let it go.

Happy Twelfth Day!

Can’t wait for the fishing.

Love, Sam x”

She pressed send.

“So, I heard there was going to be cake.”

Her head snapped up in shock and her eyes landed on Jack O’Neill, leaning in her doorway, decked out in a black BDU pants and a black t-shirt. His grey hair was cut short, his brown eyes were twinkling, and he had his trademark smirk aimed in her direction.

“Jack?!” Sam was out of her chair before she could register she’d moved.

Jack closed the door behind him as he crossed over to her, sweeping her up and kissing her and holding her…

And Sam’s whole world was at peace for the first time that day.

“I missed you.” Sam said as she eased back to look at him.

“I missed you too.” Jack smiled softly. “The President gave me permission to join the celebrations. I have to go back tomorrow morning though.”

Sam hugged him. “Have the guys seen you?”

“Who d’ya think escorted me? I had Daniel yammering at me the whole way about the importance of pronouncing Eghkt correctly.”

“Nobody but Daniel pronounces it correctly.” Sam laughed, rubbing her hands over his shoulders.

“That’s what I said.” Jack kissed her lightly. “Come on, let’s go get some cake.”

Sam nodded. She kissed him again before shutting down the laptop and shooing him out of her office. They fell into step beside each other as they walked to the mess; close but not too close since they maintained a professional distance on bases and ships as required by the regulations.

Sam frowned as they neared the doors; there was music, live music. She pushed the doors open and stared.

A twelve-piece band was set-up at the far end of the mess and was playing what appeared to be a lively Sixties number that had a lot of the Hammond and Apollo crew up dancing on the make-shift dance floor where the tables had been cleared away and pushed back to make room. The Coscorobans were watching in curious amusement, smiles on their faces. Sam spotted Peartree being twirled by Partridge; Grogan and Hailey dancing together; Vala dragging Daniel onto the floor…

The music changed to something softer and Jack cleared his throat noisily beside her.

“Dance, Carter?”

“Thank you, sir.” Sam accepted his hand and laughed as he tugged her into the centre of the dance floor and a traditional hold; her hand in his; his other arm around her waist, her other hand on his shoulder.

Sam looked around as they swayed and smiled at the happy faces; the relief of a battle won; the happiness of a new friendship and alliance.

Her gaze drifted to the band. “Twelve musicians?” She murmured in Jack’s ear.

“All from the programme.” Jack said. “Walter might have helped organise it.”

“You tried to find twelve drummers and had to ask for help, didn’t you?” Sam said amused.

“I admit nothing.” Jack said dryly. His hand tightened on hers. “It’s been fun though, right? This whole twelve days thing?”

Sam met his eyes and drank in the love and affection that his gaze brimmed over with. “Fun.” She agreed.

“O’Neill, Colonel Carter.” Teal’c’s soft low voice interrupted them and they belatedly realised the Jaffa had sneaked up to stand beside them, his hands clasped as always behind him. The rest of SG1, Cassie with an arm slung around a grinning Vala, looked on from the side of the dance floor. “I believe you are standing under mistletoe.”

Sam ducked her head to hide her smile. It was such a set-up but as her laughing eyes met Jack’s again, she knew neither of them really minded. One kiss wasn’t going to interfere with discipline, regulations or no regulations.

“Well,” Jack declared with a smirk, “never let it be said that I don’t hold with tradition.”

And as he framed her face and kissed her, Sam ignored her cheering crew, the whistles and clapping, and enjoyed the moment and Jack…because his being there to kiss her and dance with her surrounded by the people they loved was the best gift of all.

fin.