The Trader's Wife
By Ted Sadler - ted.sadler@ntlworld.com


                         *******************

INCLUDES: The Trader's Wife
          The Price of Life
          Ten Thousand Days

                         *******************


The Trader's Wife
By Ted Sadler - ted.sadler@ntlworld.com


RATING: FR-T

WARNINGS: Sexual situations, violence, extreme shippiness!

CATEGORY: Action/Adventure, Romance, Future Story

PAIRING: Sam/Jack, Sam/other

SPOILERS: None given

TIME FRAME: Season Seven  

SUMMARY: Jack's career after the SGC.

DISCLAIMER: "Stargate SG-1" and its characters are the property of 
MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp., Showtime/Viacom and 
USA Networks, Inc. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no 
money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The 
original characters, situations and story are the property of the 
author(s), and may not be republished or archived elsewhere without the 
author's permission.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is for Emry, who inspired me to try to make it 
memorable. Ted


                         *******************

Sam had not been as nervous as this for a long time. Not since 
introducing her fiancé Jonas Hanson to her father eight years ago, she 
realised. The roller coaster of emotions she had experienced in the last 
month was something she should be getting used to, but deep down, she 
knew that this first meeting between her new boyfriend Michael and SG-1, 
and particularly its leader, was her biggest ordeal since she'd fallen 
for him.

She glanced nervously at Michael and smiled briefly as they pulled into 
the parking lot of the bar-restaurant where *her* team would have been 
waiting since seven o'clock. That they were thirty minutes late was 
entirely her doing, as her nerves had got the better of her several times 
before leaving home. But with Michael's encouragement, here they were. 
She was reassured by the sight of Daniel's car, and hoped that the fact 
that the Colonel wasn't driving did not mean he would be drinking heavily 
this evening. She had been away for a month, the first two weeks working 
in Washington with Michael, the second two on vacation with him in 
Florida.

"Courage, Sammie!" said Michael, squeezing her hand as they walked to the 
door. "I'm not at all worried about meeting your Air Force friends. I 
don't care what they think of me - just as long as you love me." She 
smiled in response, but the butterflies were still there. After a few 
moments she spotted her friends through the relative dark of the room and 
walked over. Teal'c, Daniel and Jonas rose to their feet as Sam and 
Michael arrived.

'Oh crap!' thought Sam, her heart sinking. 'He's not come. I should have 
known.' Introductions and handshakes for Michael followed, and brief hugs 
for her. Teal'c was 'Murray', as was usual off-base. They ordered more 
drinks and answered questions about their vacation. Jonas and Michael got 
into quite an animated conversation about..... something, Sam realised, 
but she didn't know the details as she hadn't been listening. She knew 
that Daniel and Teal'c were holding back, and saw that if she didn't ask 
the question, they would not be forthcoming.

She sank a deep draft of her beer, and took the dreaded step. "So, 
where's the Colonel tonight, Daniel?"

Daniel's face reddened and he looked down at the table. "He's, er, gone 
Sam." His fingers were pulling shreds off the beer mat.

"Gone?" echoed Sam, her voice faltering. "You mean gone fishing, I 
suppose?"

Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated, and Teal'c cut in. "No, 
Samantha. He is not fishing, to the best of my knowledge. Colonel O'Neill 
has taken retirement for medical reasons and left the Air Force. He went 
two weeks ago and is now travelling *abroad* for the next twelve months."

The thin façade of her new-found happiness vanished instantly. She found 
her fingers turning to ice as she clumsily set the glass back on the 
table, beer spilling onto the surface.

"Sammie is everything OK?" asked Michael anxiously. She could not have 
replied if she had wanted to, and rose quickly, heading for the rest room 
as tears started to fill her eyes.

Sam emerged after a traumatic twenty minutes, only returning to their 
table when the waitress had appeared to ask if she was all right, at the 
behest of Michael. The rest of the Saturday evening went badly, as only 
Jonas seemed to be able to engage Michael in natural conversation, 
whereas Daniel and Teal'c restricted themselves to polite replies and 
innocuous questions. Sam hardly said a word. She wanted desperately to 
ask them for details, but knew that they couldn't talk about it in 
public, and she certainly didn't want Michael to be involved in that 
discussion.

As the evening wore on, she barely took in any of the conversations, and 
became aware of the bigger truth. She didn't love Michael, and wasn't 
ever going to. She had never told him about her would-be relationship, or 
lack of it, with the Colonel. The hole in her heart created by the 
thought that she may never see Jack again was huge, and growing larger by 
the hour.

She wished that she had had the courage a month ago to tell Jack about 
Michael when they were alone, but she had told the whole team together 
during one of their evenings at her house. The sick look on Jack's face 
afterwards and his early departure without speaking had made her feel bad 
for a moment, but at the time her enthralment with her new boyfriend had 
soon caused the feeling to pass. If she could move on, so should he.

When they got back to her house, Michael could not help but realise that 
Sam's feelings towards him had changed drastically. At first he tried to 
win her round again, but then got angry when she started apologising and 
distancing herself physically from him. He went to sleep on the couch, 
but was gone when Sam got up the next morning. After washing, 
breakfasting and tidying up, she sat down and wrote him a letter of 
apology, phrased with genuine regret over the way she had dumped him, but 
leaving it quite clear that it was definitely over. She didn't think her 
feelings would change, and to make sure she walked down the road and 
posted the letter without hesitation.

                         *******************

Daniel's arrival at Sam's house shortly after her return gave her the 
opportunity she was longing for. After a hugged greeting on the doorstep, 
she made coffee and they sat down in her lounge. Before she could start a 
stream of questions, Daniel said, "He failed his medical, Sam. His knee 
is going to give out soon with the kind of stress that our job puts on 
it, but he'll be OK if he leads a normal life. Healthy exercise and all 
that stuff. But you know Jack. He'd never sit behind a desk for the rest 
of his career, so he resigned."

"Was that the only reason?" asked Sam.

"Nooo, well, yes *officially*." replied Daniel. "But you know as well as 
I do that he'd just lost any remaining reasons for staying. I haven't 
seen him that depressed off-duty since our first Abydos mission. But the 
difference this time was that General Hammond needed someone working 
independently in a new role and Jack's sudden availability solved a 
problem for both of them."

"Why, what's he doing now?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Well, you knew before you left that the SGC is having a budget crisis 
over the cost of sustaining and operating increasing numbers of Field 
Units." said Daniel, and Sam nodded. "The need to follow up on previously 
visited planets is getting more urgent, and conflicts with the needs to 
keep exploring new worlds for allies and resources. So Jack and Hammond 
came up with the idea of a *low-profile* person who would travel to 
planets previously visited by SG teams to report back on how well things 
were doing. To see how friendly the local population remains with Earth, 
and to spend more time merging into the society, observing how things 
really are on certain worlds, and not just how they respond to strangers 
arriving through the Stargates. We gave Jack a hell of a send-off two 
weeks ago and barring accidents, he'll be back from his first tour some 
time next year. He's got a loose schedule for visiting planets and passes 
reports back through the Alpha Site Stargate. The first note tied to a 
rock came through on Friday!"

"What, he's not coming back to the SGC in between visits?" said Sam 
incredulously. "Is he going to meet with SG teams off-world, then?"

"Not by design." sighed Daniel. "The plan is for him to gradually assume 
the role of an itinerant trader, so people aren't aware of his ties with 
Earth and our fight against the Goa'uld. He's just going to call himself 
'Jack' and he was actually quite looking forward to starting. Oh, he did 
say to tell you that he wished you and Michael all the best for the 
future. Where is Michael, by the way?"

"He's 'gone' too." said Sam, looking down. "I realised last night what a 
terrible mistake I'd made. I hope he'll forgive me, one day." She added 
after a short pause, "Like Jack did." But she didn't believe it and 
neither did Daniel.

"Yeah, right!" he smirked. "I'm sorry about Michael. But you know 
forgiveness isn't high on the list of Jack's priorities, Sam. He's in 
denial now, and it'll last for God knows how long. He'd fallen so far in 
love with you and you know it. You also knew he'd respect the regs - look 
at what happens to people who don't! Their military careers and 
relationships get blown apart. You made the right move for yourself, 
finding love outside the SGC, but before Jack fell for you two years ago 
he'd reconciled himself to being alone for the rest of his life. He 
started to hope again. He doesn't blame you for finding someone else, but 
he's doing what Jack does - going back to being alone."

"Daniel, are you mad at me?" asked Sam, on the verge of tears.

"No, not really. But I think you should have told Jack by yourself, not 
just announce Michael's existence to everyone like that. But Jack's gone 
now, and that's that. Still, there is one upside - just sound surprised 
tomorrow when Hammond gives you command of SG-1. You do deserve that, you 
know."

Sam cried herself to sleep that night, but when she woke in the early 
hours, a new resolve slowly crept in. Jack would not know what hit him, 
when the time came.

                         *******************

During the next nine months, Jack's occasional reports from different 
planets were a joy to read for the SG team leaders, and especially for 
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter. 

Many worlds turned out to have been merely humouring their original 
Tau'ri visitors, and cared little for alliances or trade and cultural 
exchanges: they mainly wanted to be left alone to pursue their own 
interests. Jack the Trader was welcome enough in these places, and 
managed to make a reasonably comfortable existence by bartering goods and 
services. He drew the line at trading in human lives, but could be 
unscrupulous if necessary and as hard as his hardest opponents.

Freed from military restraint, his reports painted word pictures not only 
of the places and people he met, but also of the political and economic 
situations and their relevance to Earth's needs. Hand-written with a real 
fountain pen in black ink, Sam took copies of all his originals and filed 
them in a special book in her office. Her initial annoyance at his 
frequent reduction of technological descriptions to 'doohickeys' and 
'gadgets' gradually gave way to a kind of bemused appreciation, as he was 
quite good at describing their effects. 'Supposed to make the wearer 
invisible, but gives the game away in UV light.' went one such missive. 
'Great for running away from unwanted disco partners.' However she 
recognised that his lack of technology awareness was the weak point of 
his campaign, and that set her mind searching for opportunities.

His longest message was around five thousand words, where he was in 
raptures about the kindness and friendliness of the Mythoran men, and the 
erotic beauty and generosity of the women. Reading between the lines, Sam 
felt jealous and upset, and began to realise just what Jack had gone 
through after she had left him for her new love. She was somewhat 
relieved and smiled when his next report, the shortest ever, arrived from 
another world just two days later.

'P5D 564 bastards!' it read. 'May they rot in hell!' She later learned 
that he had gated briefly to the Alpha Site to receive medical attention 
for several nasty-looking knife scars on his hands and body, but he was 
gone again before she could orchestrate an SG-1 visit there.

A few days later, SG-17 burst through the Event Horizon laughing and 
joking. Sam was watching from the control room, and intrigued by this 
rare event, went down to meet them. "What's so funny, Major?" she asked.

"We just encountered 'The O'Neill Factor' on that planet, sir." said 
Major Patterson. "We found the local kids playing a version of baseball, 
and were wondering where they'd learned it, when the team captain shouted 
'Fer cryin' out loud! Get your asses in gear!', and we just knew who'd 
trained them."

It was at this time that Sam realised she was counting down the days to 
his first scheduled return to Earth. After summoning Teal'c and Daniel to 
her office, she confided in them the approach she was going to make to 
General Hammond. 

                         *******************

On day 365, Jack O'Neill strode confidently down the ramp in the SGC, and 
was surprised to find a welcoming committee of General Hammond and SG 
Units 1 through 4 paraded at attention in the background.

"Welcome back, Jack!" said Hammond, saluting him. Although he was no 
longer in the service, Jack returned the salute promptly and smartly, 
through years of habit. "I'd be honoured if you'd inspect the guard." He 
accompanied Jack past SG-4, none of whom Jack recognised. However, to 
show respect he met each person eye to eye and briefly nodded in 
acknowledgement of their presence on parade. At the end of the line, 
however, discipline broke down as Daniel and Jonas smiled broadly at him, 
and he returned the gesture. Teal'c's little bow of the head was met with 
one of his own, and Carter's unmilitary smile and sparkling eyes just 
took his breath away. She was in awe of his tanned, weather-beaten face 
and muscular upper body showing through the thin shirt.

"I believe congratulations are in order, Colonel." said Jack, taking in 
her insignia. "I hope they're giving you the same hard times that they 
gave me." Carter just carried on smiling and staring at him. Not a soul 
present missed the look in their eyes.

"Jack, if you'll join me for debriefing after your medical, we can catch 
up on everything." said Hammond. "Colonel Carter will join us to discuss 
Phase Two."

Two hours later, the discussions began in earnest. Hammond expressed his 
pleasure at Jack's progress in visiting the designated worlds and the 
quality of the information that he was sending back, but chastised him 
for the lack of in-depth technical reporting. Sam started to explain the 
shortfalls in more detail, and Jack's eyes began to glaze over, just like 
the old days.

"Jack, this is a problem." said Hammond. "Everything else you're doing is 
great, but we've got to improve the tech assessments. Colonel Carter has 
made a suggestion for Phase Two that I believe has a lot of merit, and 
has my backing. Colonel?"

"Thank you, sir." replied Sam. "Jack, we propose to resume your mission 
after your leave with someone accompanying you full-time who has 
sufficient technical knowledge to make good the shortfall."

"But won't that be a bit too high-profile for this job?" said Jack. "I 
mean, the original idea was for me to merge into the communities so I 
could see them acting naturally. Taking along an SGC geek is going to 
spoil that approach."

"Your partner would be a real partner, if you see what I mean, Jack." 
explained Hammond, although Jack just looked confused.

"The *geek* would travel as your wife for the duration, Jack." continued 
Sam. "Sort of 'Mrs. Jack the Trader', so to speak. If you'll have me, 
that is." Her eyes bored into his, just as if the Goa'uld force field was 
between them again.

"What? Is this for real, or are you winding me up?" said Jack, in total 
astonishment. He looked at the General to see if he was laughing. He was, 
but in a benign, friendly way. "Carter, is this a proposal? I mean a real 
one? Or just a mission suggestion?"

                         *******************

"I can see that I'd better let the two of you discuss this in more 
detail." said General Hammond. Jack sat back in amazement, waiting for, 
but not getting an answer from Sam, who in turn seemed to be unable to 
stop grinning at him, while the red flush that had started at her neck 
travelled up her face to her hair line. "I suggest that you report back 
to me at 0800 on Thursday. Dismissed." After no-one moved for a while, he 
repeated more loudly, "Dismissed, Colonel, Jack!"

Jack looked round at him and suddenly and rose to his feet, Sam following 
his lead. As he was leaving, he stopped and turned back. "General, I 
assume I have quarters assigned to me on base? Don't forget I have 
nowhere to live outside any more. I sold my house to pay off my ex-wife's 
alimony."

"I regret not, Jack." replied Hammond. With a twinkle in his eye, he 
said, "But I'm sure Colonel Carter can organise something for you."

Moments later, as they entered Carter's office, Jack closed the door 
behind him and grabbed her arm before she could move round to the other 
side of the desk. "Carter.... Sam, what's going on? I could have sworn 
back there that you were proposing something way beyond the call of duty 
for a mission. Or am I missing the point? I mean, last time I saw you, 
you were off with a new lover. Won't he object?"

"He was a mistake, Jack, and I'm truly sorry I hurt you. When I heard 
you'd left, I've never been so upset." said Sam quietly. "And I didn't 
plan this straight away. I just knew that I wanted to be with you again. 
The opportunity came up when General Hammond and I recognised that what 
you've been doing is really great for Earth in every respect except the 
technology feedback. I realised that I could get what I want and at the 
same time do something useful."

"What *do* you want, Sam?" asked Jack, sliding his hand down her arm 
until their fingers met and entwined. 

She found herself unable to look him in the eye, but then summoned up the 
reserves of her courage, and raised her head. "A lot more than just a 
mission together, Jack. But whether that's going to happen depends on you 
as well."

In answer, he raised his other hand to stroke her cheek. He leaned 
forward and lightly pressed his lips to hers, and after a few moments of 
gentle contact, they drew their arms around each other and the passion 
deepened. Jack was on fire. Breaking off the kiss, he held her to him 
tightly. He spoke closely into her ear. "Sam.... Sam, please let this be 
real. I can't stand the hurt again."

"I won't do that again as long as I live, Jack. Come home with me." She 
murmured into his neck. They broke apart, and Sam cleared a few documents 
off her desk and locked up before they left for the surface. When they 
finally walked out into daylight, the forgotten but still familiar smell 
of Earth hit Jack, and brought back to him the memories his departure a 
year ago, when he had been looking forward to the distractions of a leap 
into the unknown on distant worlds, hoping that the dull ache in his 
heart would diminish.

The ride back to her house was strange for both of them. As she drove, 
they kept exchanging glances when they thought the other wasn't looking, 
but eventually locked eyes together for a moment and smiled. As they 
entered her front door, Jack was taken with an urge to grab her there and 
then, but he held back, still uncertain of how she was expecting him to 
behave, and afraid of doing the wrong thing.

"Er, Sam, we've got to....." He got no further as she turned and threw 
her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately and pushing him back 
to the wall. They devoured each other for endless minutes, before 
starting to pull at the other's clothes, and by a series of movements 
took their ancient dance of love first to the lounge and then to bed.

                         *******************

By evening the pangs of hunger drew them to the kitchen, where Sam 
microwaved some ready meals which they took through to the lounge. As 
they sat eating, occasionally taking a forkful from the other's plate, 
Jack found a way to start the question that had been building up in his 
mind since he first realised a few hours before that he could never leave 
her again.

"You know this is going to be hard for you at first, Sam? I mean, we'll 
be travelling for much of the time, and on some worlds I'll be forced to 
treat you like a second-class citizen in public just so's we fit in with 
the local customs."

"I'm sure I can get payback on one or two planets where the boot's on the 
other foot!" she replied, laughing. "Just so long as your public 
behaviour doesn't carry over to our private time."

"I'm serious, Sam." said Jack earnestly. "We're spying on these people, 
and you're going to have to do a crash course in basic techniques before 
we even leave Earth."

"Why? It's not as though I haven't been on hundreds of missions with SG-
1." she said.

"Not the same." Jack lowered the empty plates to the floor and put his 
arm round her. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "For a start, 
you've got to learn ways to look inconspicuous in public - the way you 
dress, wear make-up, move, position yourself in a room full of people and 
stuff like that. Right now you just turn every guy's head the minute you 
walk in anywhere. And don't deny it, I've been watching you for over six 
years, remember."

"OK, I grant that flattery will get me to agree there!" she laughed. 
"What else, James?"

"There are the basic techniques of creating messages and reports in ways 
that don't blow our game in seconds." he continued. "And how to recognise 
when you're being watched, or who's likely to be suspicious or 
unpredictable, and a thousand other small things that'll make the 
difference between success and failure, maybe even life or death. Another 
thing you'll have to work on is not radiating the fact that you're 
smarter than most of us. Full training takes years, but we can't do that 
here. You're gonna have to take a month out before we can leave, or we 
ain't going. Simple as that. If you want to go with this, I can arrange 
for you to start tomorrow. They'll give you the basics and I can fill in 
the rest over time."

"That soon?" she said, surprised by his serious tone. "And what will you 
be doing?"

"Urgent stuff like selling up the cabin and getting briefed on the next 
missions. Maybe getting in a little fishing if there's time." Jack 
squeezed her tight. "There's one biggie, though. We're gonna have to get 
married on another world, using local vows and their style of ceremony, 
so that anyone checking up doesn't make a connection with us being 
Tau'ri."

"Is that a proposal, Jack?" she asked, turning round to look him in the 
eye.

"Yes, Sam. Just like the one you made in Hammond's office, remember? But 
mine's not mission-related. I'm talking about life. I've never stopped 
loving you for the past four years." He paused before continuing. "You 
don't have to answer straight away."

"Jack, Jack." she sighed. "Of course it's for life. I love you too."

                         *******************

The whirlwind of their lives during the next three weeks gave them only a 
few days and nights together. Jack travelled to Minnesota and much though 
he hated to do it, tidied up his cabin, repaired the odd broken item, and 
put it in the hands of a realtor for sale. His last evening there was 
spent fishing on the dock - what else? But his thoughts were on the 
memories of his life, the good and bad times, and his eyes misted over 
when he realised that this retreat was his last connection with his dead 
son. He wondered whether he was doing the right thing, and nearly decided 
to cancel the sale. But a while later, he saw that leaving the cabin to 
decay in between rare visits would somehow desecrate his memories and his 
decision was the correct one. Then he thought of the sparkling blue eyes 
and the adventure that awaited him, and the journey back to Colorado was 
made in much higher spirits than the outward one.

He did travel off-world for a few days during the second week, but only 
General Hammond knew the reason. As far as everyone else was concerned, 
he had to close a deal on the last planet he'd visited. When he returned, 
he went back to stay in Sam's house, and in her absence made a few 
repairs and started to prepare the items they'd agreed on for removal and 
storage when they left Earth in two weeks' time. They managed a flying 
visit to her brother Mark to tell him of their engagement, and to explain 
that they would be living and travelling abroad, but would see them every 
year.

Sam had thought that her career successes in astrophysics and military 
studies had made her ready for anything that life could throw at her. 
This comfortable illusion was totally dispelled by the end of her first 
day of CIA training in the arts of deception and espionage. The 
instructor had only agreed to continue her course when he found out that 
she would be permanently accompanying former Colonel J. O'Neill. "You're 
too nice and too attractive to be considered an agent." he had told her. 
"And lady, that's not a compliment coming from me. Just take good notice 
of everything Jack shows and tells you, and you'll stand a chance. He was 
one of our great successes. Pity the Air Force spirited him away on some 
secret project: we could have used him."

However, the agent's respect for Sam grew when he saw how determined she 
was to succeed, and he had seen highly-edited details of her service 
record. There would be no need to teach her anything about interrogation 
techniques or withstanding torture and that made the job a whole lot 
easier. At the end of the third week's training, Sam was dispatched back 
to Colorado and Jack's arms. A whole new set of his talents had been 
exposed to her, and she loved him all the more.

                         *******************

Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c were eating and chatting together in the 
commissary when they saw Jack enter, collect a tray of food, and head in 
their direction. Jonas pushed aside the empty fourth chair to make room 
for him. He smiled at them, but to their collective surprise, proceeded 
to sit down two tables away beside an airwoman they hadn't noticed 
before. He placed an arm round her shoulders and gave her a quick kiss on 
the cheek before starting to eat. Daniel and Jonas stared in amazement, 
but Teal'c's face cracked into the thinnest of smiles.

Returning their gaze, Sam said, "Hi guys! Did you miss me?" and burst out 
laughing. Jack's deadpan face beside her made it seem all the funnier. 
Daniel just stared at her brown hair and pale face, and found nothing to 
say, especially when she removed the wig and shook out her blonde locks.

Jonas, on the other hand, started with "Wow, Sam!" and continued with a 
barrage of questions. He finished with "I'm gonna call you 'Secret Sam' 
from now on!"

The hours and days were crammed with briefings and preparation for his 
next and her first tour of duty. Sam was so looking forward to it all - 
being with Jack, of course, but equally the prospect of doing a really 
vital job in a field she just loved working in. Just how big a change her 
life was undergoing suddenly came home to her the day she officially 
relinquished command of SG-1, and they held a celebration farewell party 
in the SGC.

It was Daniel who first asked the question, loudly enough so that 
everybody stopped to listen. "So you two aren't getting married on Earth, 
then. Where will it be?" Sam suddenly realised that she'd been so 
preoccupied with everything else during the last few weeks, that she 
didn't know the answer to that. She looked round at Jack.

"Oh, I've found the perfect location and culture." he replied. "Beautiful 
setting, nice people, and a ceremony that's such an intense, satisfying 
spiritual experience that it puts Earth marriages to shame. As to where, 
well, that's a surprise."

"Ooookay." said Daniel. "When?"

"Day after tomorrow." said Jack nonchalantly, his arm around Sam's waist, 
anticipating her need for assistance in staying on her feet.

                         *******************

"Jack, it's too soon!" she had protested at first. "I mean, maybe it's 
the right thing as far as mission dynamics are concerned, but....."

"Sam," interrupted Jack, "do you trust me? Really trust me?"

"Of course, but....."

"Then listen carefully, and know this. What we are about to do is the 
defining moment of my life. I don't give a damn if the mission ends the 
day after. This is about us doing what we both want at a time that just 
happens to be convenient under the circumstances. If you really want to 
postpone, or you're having second thoughts, then of course we'll cancel. 
But I want this to happen for no other reason than I love you, and it 
feels right."

Sam reached forward and held him, having seen the burning depth of his 
soul in his eyes. "No, it's what I want too." she said quietly. "But what 
about Dad? We haven't told him yet."

Jack laughed and squeezed her. "Who do you think will be the first person 
we meet when we go through the gate tomorrow? He'll be at the ceremony 
too." As she drew back and stared at him, he continued, "Two weeks ago. I 
took a few days away while you were training to be Mata Hari and told him 
about us. He didn't seem too surprised, and his snake seemed OK with it 
as well. He helped me find the contacts for the ceremony on Mythor. I 
promise you won't be disappointed. Oh, and stop worrying about getting 
ready in time. You'll have all the help you need tomorrow from some 
friends I met there. Now quit thinking up obstacles. You OK to rejoin the 
party?"

"Yes, but promise me Jack, no more surprises? We're in this together, 
OK?"

"I promise."

Only partly convinced, but knowing deep down that the roller coaster had 
started moving some time ago, Sam took his arm and they walked back into 
the room full of their friends and colleagues. The smile that started to 
cross her face when the congratulations and questions began gradually 
deepened, until by the end of the evening she looked and felt the 
radiant, happy centre of attention that every woman deserved to be at a 
time like this.

                         *******************

Walking on her father's arm, Sam was a mixture of nerves and anticipation 
as they proceeded up the long, shallow flight of stairs to the Grecian-
style white stone temple where Jack was waiting. Maybe it was the 
occasion, but she had never seen a sight as breathtakingly dramatic as 
this, with the columns lit softly against a darkening evening sky and 
rolling wooded hills, and a warm breeze causing wind-chimes to quietly 
create a background carpet of music. She glanced at her father, who just 
smiled in return.

Jacob was too emotional to speak. Images of his own and his son's 
weddings were playing in his mind, where Selmak lay consciously dormant, 
herself unprepared for the flood of memories and longing running through 
him. His symbiote had thoughts of her own drawn from several hundred 
years of existence, but so rarely experienced that she too was 
overwhelmed. Jacob concentrated on keeping the slow and steady pace that 
was just one of the finer points of etiquette in Mythoran weddings, which 
he had only seen and admired twice before.

His daughter looked as though she had been born to this moment, her 
golden hair and blue eyes highlighted by her plain white sleeveless gown, 
with its grey belt. And on her right forearm was the fine gold filigree 
of a Mythoran im'ri, wrapped delicately in intricate patterns from her 
wrist to her elbow. Jack would be wearing the only matching one in the 
entire universe, which would in a few moments time bond them for life. He 
wondered whether Sam's choice yesterday to use it had been based solely 
on her love for Jack, or whether the inquisitive scientist in her really 
couldn't resist the experience of having a neural net embedded in her 
forearm that would enhance their, and only their emotions whenever they 
were in close proximity to each other. Either way, the unique fine 
tattoo-like marks that they would carry for life were so much more a sign 
of commitment than mere wedding rings on Earth.

The long walk steadied their nerves, and Jacob briefly felt sorry for 
Jack when they found him waiting under the temple panoply. He saw some of 
the tension drain away as soon as they came into sight, and smiled at him 
in reassurance. In compliance with the ritual, he took hold of Sam's 
right hand and offered it to Jack, who took it in his left. Jacob stepped 
back, while the couple moved forward to stand in the centre of the temple 
floor on a large mosaic depicting a spiral galaxy, nebulae and stars.

As soon as their eyes met, they couldn't resist smiling at each other. 
Jack was dressed in a light grey tunic and slacks, and looked everything 
that Sam could have hoped for. Jacob failed to stop his eyes misting over 
at the sight of them together. The Mythoran priest moved slowly towards 
the centre and stopped three metres in front of them. The wind-chimes 
subsided so that only the breeze passing through the columns and rafters 
could be heard. "Are you here to follow the sacred ceremony of 
declaration?" he enquired.

"We are." they said together. Jack took Sam's other hand in his as they 
faced each other.

"Declare the truth, Jack." said the priest.

Jack hesitated only slightly, but then found his voice. "Samantha, you 
are the reason for my existence and my world, and I love you dearly. I 
offer you my life and my soul, for all time."

Turning slightly, the priest continued, "Declare the truth, Samantha."

With tears running down her face and neck, Sam too found her voice and 
said, "Jack, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I offer you 
everything that I have, now and always. I am so in love with you."

"You have chosen the im'ri to enhance your lives." said the priest. 
"Raise your right hands together." They grasped each other's right hand 
and lifted them above their heads. A bright yellow light shone down on 
them from the ceiling, and the delicate gold bands on their forearms 
sparkled and flashed. Sam held tightly onto Jack's hand as a brief moment 
of pain spread from her arm throughout her body, and she saw Jack wince 
as the same happened to him. But then it was over, and they lowered their 
arms. Glancing down, they saw that the filigree metal had now disappeared 
from the surface of the skin and had become like fine gold tattoo marks 
on their arms, the patterns matching exactly.

"The feelings and consciousness given by the im'ri will develop slowly 
over the next few weeks," explained the priest, "otherwise you would be 
drowning in each other's spirits. Congratulations, you are now joined as 
wife and husband." They leaned forward and kissed, and for a brief while 
nothing existed except the moment and each other.

Jacob could keep away no longer, and embraced them both. They shook hands 
with the priest and slowly walked out of the temple into their new life.

                         *******************

They had not spent so many nights together in the last month, and the 
novelty of being a couple was still with them on their wedding night. 
Jacob had dined with them at the small lakeside inn where they planned to 
spend a few days, but departed by mid evening. Being Jacob, his last 
words were to Jack - the usual father's well-meant but unnecessary advice 
to look after his daughter.

Jack entered their room to find Sam sitting on the bed examining her new 
golden tattoo. They were both still in their ceremonial clothes. "Is it 
working yet?" he asked, sitting down beside her and placing his arm 
alongside hers. "D'ya think we can pick up the local radio station?" He 
playfully kissed her cheek and ran his hand up and down her thigh. "D'oh! 
I'm on overload already. Was that good for you, honey?"

Sam laughed and kissed him back. "I couldn't help but remember Anise's 
armbands, and how they got us into this situation in the first place. If 
I hadn't got stuck behind the force field, we'd never have had to confess 
to the Zanax detector."

"Za'tarc." replied Jack, without thinking.

"Fraud!" she shouted.

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Geek."

"Moron."

"Scientist."

"Trader."

"Wife."

"Husband."

The pace of the conversation slowed to a standstill and they stared into 
each other's eyes. Kissing tenderly at first, but with greater passion as 
the minutes passed, they fumbled with the other's clothes and gently 
removed them, showing respect for the ceremonial garments. Unlike their 
first nights together, this was gentle, and slow, and filled with a 
lasting desire to please one another. And when the whispered three words 
were uttered, they had a meaning that seemed so much more than before.

As they lay together side by side, with Jack's arm around her shoulder 
and hers over his chest, he murmured, "We can have a rededication of vows 
back on Earth with friends and relatives some time next year, if you 
want."

"Maybe." she replied. "But I see what you meant now by this ceremony 
putting Earth marriages into the shade. Just having to think about the 
whole truth of why we want to be together, and hearing you say it, was 
the best moment of my life."

"Me too."

After a long silence, she asked sleepily, "Where are we going first? I 
can't remember."

"Doohickey heaven." he replied. "Agricultural show on Tau Ceti 4."

"Technology at an agricultural show?" she asked, raising her head to look 
at him.

"Wait and see. You'll like selling off our stand there. It's next to the 
Goa'uld Pavilion."

                         *******************

"Remember," said Jack just before the Tau Ceti Agricultural Show opened, 
"we're proud to be traders but we're sufficiently cowed by their presence 
so's they feel like they've got the upper hand in doing business with us. 
Just you watch them go for this crap. I couldn't believe it last year 
when the Goa'uld actually started handing over good money for photographs 
of famous symbiotes. And they get quite talkative if you ask them who 
their favourites are."

"Yes, I remember your report." said Sam. "Quite a few names from history 
we'd never suspected of being Goa'uld before."

The two of them had worked hard for the last two days after travelling 
from their short honeymoon on Mythor to Tau Ceti 4, where Jack had 
collected supplies he'd stored after his first trip and they set up their 
stall in the showground. "Metal polish?" Sam had exclaimed in surprise 
when she unloaded box after box.

"Yup!" said Jack. "Supply and demand. Just what your average promotion-
seeking Jaffa goes for. Buffs up the ol' body armour a treat. Catches the 
eye of passing lords and despots. Hey! D'ya think we should sell 
sunglasses as well?" They had carried on stocking up with all manner of 
Tau Ceti trivia, and Jack had just laughed when Sam said that they should 
display a price list. "No way! Just keep pricing up things that sell well 
and reducing those that don't. We'll clear most of it by the last day, 
just you see."

"You've really been enjoying yourself, haven't you?" asked Sam, not a 
little apprehensive of the fact that she'd never done anything remotely 
like this before.

"Not half as much as I'm gonna with you here." replied Jack. As he slung 
his arm carelessly around her shoulder, both felt a brief warm feeling 
pass through, and automatically glanced at the gold tattoos on their 
forearms. "Hey!" he continued, "d'ya think....?" 

"Probably." Sam said. "The induction time for neural enhancement to 
begin...." She got no further as he placed his hand over her mouth, and 
she grinned back at him. "OK, OK, enjoy the mystery, no scientific 
explanations until we're totally helpless around each other."

"Attagirl!" Jack responded. "I'll give you plenty of time to go round the 
show. Watch out for the kids' toys and trinkets. You'll be surprised how 
much high-tech electronics and engineering gets used in those after the 
initial secrecy has worn off. And it'll be easy to send examples back 
home for analysis."

And so Sam was introduced to the ways of haggling and cajoling money out 
of visitors of many races, quite a few of whom fell to her determination 
to not let them walk away without 'just a little souvenir of the show.' 
Her heart had been in her mouth during the first few conversations with 
Goa'uld and Jaffa, but following Jack's lead, she realised after a while 
that they were just not viewed as being anything other than Mythoran 
traders, of no particular threat to anyone. It was amazing how people's 
perceptions changed in different circumstances. She quickly learned to be 
subservient to the haughty and boastful Goa'uld, but quite cheeky and 
pushy with the Jaffa soldiers, whose come-on lines seemed to be similar 
to those of men on many worlds as well as Earth. Jack had of course 
wanted to be protective at first, but quickly realised that Sam was quite 
capable of delivering one-line put-downs and hand-offs all by herself. 
And when a group of slightly drunken women from Kindana, a female-
dominated world, had surrounded Jack and offered to give him 'a good time 
to remember', her coarse language in seeing them off had brought laughter 
to the small crowd at their stand. "Talk dirty to me tonight?" he 
whispered as the women left, and she had the grace to blush.

On the final day, as they packed away their few unsold goods and she 
carefully wrapped up the miniature electronic marvels and technical 
brochures to send home, Jack asked her how she had enjoyed the 
experience.

"I just love it!" she said. "If we continue at this rate, we could 
potentially outstrip the combined tech findings of several SG teams. How 
did your political assessment go?"

"They welcome everyone here." said Jack. "There's no way they'd ever 
align themselves with us or anyone. Pretty easy pickings for getting any 
goods or services you want. I don't think they care about whether the 
recipients are advanced or undeveloped civilisations. Money counts here, 
not much else."

As she lay asleep next to Jack that night, dog-tired after the whole 
experience of her first 'mission', he felt the strange sensation of her 
deep contentment flowing through his consciousness. Truly, a bare five 
weeks after returning to Earth, his life and future prospects were 
incomparably better. 

                         *******************

Janet Fraiser was reading the fifth report received from Sam and Jack. 
'My God, they're rubbing off on each other.' she thought, seeing the 
increasingly casual style of Sam's technology summary and his more 
structured and incisive eco-political one.

It had been eight months since their departure, and General Hammond noted 
with a great deal of satisfaction that their substantial contribution to 
Earth's ability to detect and withstand alien threats was helping his 
limited budget go so much further. He should have realised, though, that 
his summaries to the Chiefs of Staff would inevitably attract the 
attention of the security agencies and their political cohorts. As was 
later discovered, spying on alien activities was a two-way process and 
not a game at all.

                         *******************

The guards at the Alpha site Stargate were on full alert, the incoming 
wormhole having initiated unexpectedly. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c were 
standing back, watching the Marines adopt a defensive ring around the 
gate. To everyone's surprise, Jack staggered through the Event Horizon 
carrying the unconscious form of Sam, before collapsing to the ground. 
Teal'c beat everyone to their prone bodies, shouting to the guard to hold 
fire as he sprinted through.

"Medical emergency!" he shouted, moving Sam's body off Jack as he lay 
awkwardly beneath her. Both were extensively cut and bruised around their 
heads and bodies, and Jack was having difficulties breathing steadily.

"Teal'c, ol' buddy." rasped Jack. "Look after Sam. Don't mind......" But 
he got no further before passing out.

They awoke more or less at the same time in adjacent beds in the SGC 
infirmary, sensing each other's presence before looking round. Jack 
realised that they were discovering the downside of their enhanced 
bonding, each unable to shut out the other's sensations of pain and 
anguish. With an enormous effort of will, he used his experience of 
previous capture and torture to still his thoughts and concentrate on 
something, anything pleasant and soothing. To his relief he saw Sam relax 
slightly as he did so.

Janet Fraiser appeared and hovered over Sam, checking her IV lines before 
turning to Jack's bed. General Hammond joined them moments later.

"Well, I've seen you both in worse condition before, but it's been a 
while. Aren't you supposed to be avoiding combat these days?" she said.

"Colonel Carter, Jack." said Hammond. "Are you up to telling us what 
happened?"

"Is Sam gonna be OK?" asked Jack, glancing between Janet and his wife's 
bed, relaxing slightly at the doctor's brief nod. "I wish we knew what 
happened, General." he continued. "We gated to the planet as planned, and 
almost before we'd exited the wormhole, a bunch of uniformed goons jumped 
us and just started to kick the crap out of us. The last thing I heard 
was some officer raving about this was how they deal with spies and 
troublemakers, before they dialled out and made it clear if we didn't get 
out ourselves straight away, they'd kill us on the spot. I managed to 
pick Sam up and I gated from wherever they'd dialled us to the Alpha 
Site. You know the rest."

"Who knew you were going to that planet?" asked Hammond.

"No-one off world." replied Jack. "Apart from never talking about the 
mission in public or where we could be bugged, traders don't let on where 
they do their business next. It's too damn competitive."

"I see." said Hammond. "Then in all probability we have a security 
problem either in the SGC or in Washington." Turning to Janet, he asked, 
"Doctor, let me know their condition and progress. We'll talk later." 
After briefly squeezing Sam's hand in a fatherly gesture, he left 
quickly.

Jack tried to sit up and would have walked over to Sam's bed, but was 
prevented by the doctor and a nurse. "Jack, I know you're anxious, but 
just leave it for a few hours, OK?" said Janet. "You're both pretty 
beaten up, and you probably have a cracked rib. But other than that, it 
looks worse than it really is. I'll talk to you both later when the 
sedative's let you rest a little."

                         *******************

"Well, folks, I've got bad news, good news and very good news." said 
Janet some hours later. Sam and Jack's beds had been moved closer 
together to see whether their alien bond would assist their recovery, and 
it seemed to be helping Sam a lot. She was now sitting up, reclining 
against the pillows, but he was still prone.

"I can guess the bad." said Sam. "We're stuck here for a few days, yes? 
And it isn't going to stop hurting for a while?"

"Got it!" replied Janet. "Sam, you've nothing but cuts and bruises, but 
Jack seems to have been worked over by those people more thoroughly." 
Looking at him, she continued, "You've got two cracked ribs and it's 
taken a while to stop your internal bleeding. You'll be uncomfortable but 
OK in due time."

"And the good news?" asked Sam.

"You're outta here by the weekend if you behave yourselves in the 
meantime and take it easy for a week or so afterwards. But you're gonna 
love the best bit."

"Which is?" said Sam.

"Your baby's fine, Sam. No bruising in the lower abdomen, and all signs 
normal."

"What?" they cried together. Jack tried to sit up but only succeeded in 
gasping in agony and lay down again. Sam couldn't help but look down and 
quickly placed both hands across her stomach, looking up again at Jack 
when she felt a surge of pure joy emanating from him. It helped to lessen 
her shock and within moments was reinforced by her own ecstasy. She 
reached across and took his extended hand in hers, and they grinned 
stupidly at each other.

"You did know about this, didn't you?" asked Janet in surprise. "You're 
about ten weeks along." She could see from the changing facial 
expressions that ranged between tears and laughter that this was an event 
for them like no other, and she suddenly wished that she had someone to 
bond with in the same way that they seemed to be filling each other's 
lives.

                         *******************

General Hammond's report to the Pentagon two days later had been brief 
and succinct. 'Operation M2 is cancelled forthwith. Col. O'Neill (ret'd.) 
suffered a relapse after the beatings he received on P2H 442 and died of 
his injuries at the SGC. Lt. Col. Carter, who had just discovered she was 
pregnant by him, consequently suffered a nervous breakdown and will be 
retired from the Air Force on medical grounds.' The report continued with 
details in the annex.

The General dropped the folder containing the report back onto his desk, 
and looked at the couple sitting opposite. The clock on the wall ticked 
on to 02:44.

"Remind me how I died again?" asked Jack, looking across at him.

"Heart attack, massive internal bleeding or an aneurism." replied 
Hammond. "Each cause has gone into the three different versions of the 
report. We're pretty sure the agent working for the Goa'uld has one of 
their subspace transmitters hidden away. Whichever version of the message 
is picked up by the Asgard ship in orbit should pinpoint which department 
is harbouring the spy. It should be easier to apprehend or subvert the 
individual after that."

Hammond glanced across at Sam, who was sitting beside Jack and looking 
distinctly uncomfortable. "Sam, are you absolutely sure you want to go 
through with this?" he asked.

"Yes, sir." she replied. "We're not as close as some families, and I 
don't like the idea of lying to my brother, but I know that he and his 
family will be at risk if I'm not seen to make a clean break with the Air 
Force and the SGC. It's not so much telling him that I'm a widow, it's 
going to be hard never being able to visit anyone on Earth with Jack 
again. But I want to carry on with what we're doing. That has its 
personal and professional rewards."

"Very well." said Hammond. "It's time to get going, then. The Asgard 
transporter will activate in five minutes time. Take things steady, Jack, 
we can't take you back into the infirmary. Are you sure you'll cope in 
your house on Mythor for the next few days?" Jack nodded in confirmation. 
"Say your goodbyes here, the cameras are already off in this office." He 
rose and left the room.

Unable to hug each other because of their injuries, Sam and Jack clasped 
their right forearms together in the way they were becoming used to. It 
had taken them five months to get used to the increasing effects of the 
im'ri bonding, and they were only just learning how to limit the 
occasional extremes of love and fear. She felt the sudden surge of 
affection and reassurance that was emanating from him, and in turn filled 
him with her longing for them to be together again, and the immense 
satisfaction of carrying the new life within her.

"You're quite sure you want to carry on with the mission?" asked Jack. "I 
mean, we can always....."

"Stop it, Jack." she replied. "I'm not made of glass, and I can't think 
that we've many other options open to us. I really do love the work, and 
if we're making our own itineraries in future, the chances of a repeat 
ambush are pretty small. There's thousands of planets to travel to, after 
all."

"Yeah, I guess." sighed Jack. He leaned forward slightly and gently 
kissed her. "How about Jonathan?"

"What?"

"Name of our son."

"No chance."

"Arthur?"

"Get lost."

"Elvis?"

"He was a Goa'uld."

"D'oh!"

"So's he."


                         *******************

The Price of Life
By Ted Sadler - ted.sadler@ntlworld.com


RATING: FR-T

WARNINGS: Minor language

CATEGORY: Action/Adventure, Romance

PAIRING: Sam/Jack

SPOILERS: None given

TIME FRAME: Sequel to "The Trader's Wife". You really need to read that 
one first. (On Heliopolis, Gateworld, SamandJack or fanfiction.net)

SUMMARY: Everything has a price. The trader's code says so.

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the 
property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This 
piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes 
and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously 
unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to 
the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is 
coincidental and not intended by the author. 

Copyright (c) 2003


                         *******************

Chapter 1 - Uncertain Times

"Are they asleep now?" asked Jack, as Sam flopped down beside him on the 
old couch they kept at the back of their freighter's control cabin. She 
leaned against him and gratefully accepted his arm round her shoulders. 
Huygens 4B was now nine hours behind them and another sixteen were left 
before arrival back on Mythor, the world they now regarded as 'home'.

"Yes, finally." she sighed. "I don't need to tell you that we're never 
going to have another day like that again, not even if the Earth depends 
on it. Jacomb's going to miss his school friends this time. I don't think 
we can make too many more sudden changes like this."

"Agreed." said Jack, resting his cheek softly against the top of her 
head. They sat for some moments like this, each concentrating on reducing 
their mutual stress and worry, thanks to their im'ri bonding. After 
eleven years together, the enhanced feelings they could sense in each 
other via their implanted neural nets were fully developed. Normally it 
made for a truly wonderful love-life, and a sense of contentment just 
being around each other. When Sam had given birth to their two boys 
Jacomb and Danil, ten and eight years ago respectively, her shared 
sensation with Jack at the time was a two-way flood of joy in the midst 
of pain, and he had wept with her while she rejoiced with him.

As the years had gone by, friends noticed how Sam and Jack seemed to 
anticipate each other's needs and actions. More than one had asked if 
they were telepathic when they did things with very few words being 
passed between them. They weren't, of course, but that extra closeness 
was apparent to all but a few. They certainly made a devastating 
negotiating team when working together and their small but growing 'JS 
Trading' empire was treated with respect by many commercial dealers and 
buyers. Inevitably though, as was the case with many traders, less 
successful competitors or clients who felt they'd lost out somehow could 
always find ways to extract revenge, whether by informing authorities 
about less-than-legal items held in warehouses, or simply stealing their 
stock.

But today's experience reminded them of the time during their first year 
together when their role as watchers abroad for the SGC had been leaked 
to a corrupt government, whose guards had beaten them severely on arrival 
through a Stargate. Sam recalled very clearly how Jack, even though he 
had been in greater pain, had forced himself to think and feel calm 
emotions next to her, easing her own suffering. The difference now was 
that their children came first in everything they planned and did. Their 
worries were not for each other as much as for their future.

"We've lost that house forever, haven't we?" asked Sam ruefully.

"Yeah." Jack grunted quietly, squeezing her more tightly for a moment.

"Pity. I liked it a lot." she continued. "It's odd how they singled out 
ours straight away for a search instead of isolating all the traders' 
quarters like they normally do."

"That's not the only thing." he replied. "You said you saw the cops 
arriving at the school as you left with the kids, right?"

"Yes, I went straight there after your emergency signal. We only just 
made it to the Freight Hopper unchallenged. I didn't hang around to see 
how far behind us they were. I came straight for you at the rendezvous 
point and we left immediately."

"Yeah, remind me not to let you launch to orbit while I'm still in the 
cargo bay next time." 

Sam laughed and looked up at the bruise across his forehead. "Going soft 
on me? Feeling your age?" She felt his silent response.

"No, you're right, it is odd." he continued. "I think the rules have 
changed. I can't prove anything yet, but I reckon someone on Earth is 
behind this. The cops were very specific about the documents they said we 
had. No other traders knew about those." He sensed her agreement.

"I can't think of anything we've said or done in public that would give 
us away." she added. "And we've played the game of staying low-profile by 
not growing the business too much or too fast. Even though we easily 
could!" she added with a sigh.

Nobody had surprised her more than herself after she left the SGC to join 
Jack in his surveillance and spying role on foreign worlds. She loved the 
variety, loved being with him, loved her family, loved the challenges and 
discoveries. And then she revelled in actually using alien technologies 
in everyday life as well as adapting them for other, new uses. One day 
they would enjoy a good life making and selling some of the inventions 
she was storing up for their future. She hadn't told Jack yet that she 
had quietly registered a small but still dormant company called 
'Doohickies Unlimited'. That was to be her present to him at the right 
time.

"Sam, would it upset you if we turned this situation around and took 
control of our own lives?" asked Jack. She pulled her head away from his 
and looked at him questioningly. "We'll still help Earth or anyone who 
can contain the Goa'uld, but on our terms. But we've got to buy some 
insurance against our own people as well as the more obvious enemies."

The smile in her eyes was all he needed to see.

                         *******************

Chapter 2 - Cheap Labour

'This has to be the biggest screw-up for years.' thought Daniel Jackson, 
as he, a shackled Teal'c and a concussed Major Hailey were 
unceremoniously jolted around in the back of the dark covered waggon. He 
could hear the driver up front cursing the horses to pull harder up the 
rutted track and forced himself to think over recent events, as he held 
on to the Major to prevent her being knocked about in her unconscious 
state by the constant lurching.

*kcabhsalf*

Daniel knew that a mysterious note had been passed hurriedly to an SG 
team during a routine mission to P6B-911 by an anonymous hooded native, 
who fled the scene before they could stop him or her. 'Aid us, Tau'ri, we 
beg you.' it said. 'Our sacred icon will soon be delivered to the Goa'uld 
by devil traders who stole it from our temple on Avor. Without it, our 
followers will abandon their resistance and you will lose an ally. Send 
us an emissary with the knowledge of its value and we may yet save 
ourselves, and be in your debt.' It was signed 'Evenerari'.

So the SGC had called in Professor Jackson from his post at the Cultural 
Research Domum on Crucis 3A to earn his consultant's retention fee. It 
had taken only a few days of gating back and forth between Earth and his 
workplace to verify that the Avorian sect had indeed been robbed of a 
most powerful symbol of their faith. If they lost cohesion and direction, 
their role in spreading the word amongst other timid races that the 
Tau'ri were a power for good would disappear.

It had taken a further few days to locate Teal'c, whom he had found in 
semi-retirement in a remote part of Chulak. Daniel was a man no longer 
easily caught out by surprises, and the sight of the Jaffa peacefully 
fishing on a quiet lake took him unawares. He approached the water's edge 
quietly, but Teal'c had lost none of his keen senses.

"It is indeed a pleasure to meet you again, DanielJackson." said Teal'c, 
without looking round. "Perhaps your arrival will also bring the fish."

"Er, I thought that Jack had......" said Daniel uncertainly.

"For a long while, my first experience with him was most certainly a 
deterrent." replied Teal'c. "However, in time I began to see that the 
philosophy of chasing dreams by following an impractical pastime has a 
certain merit. As he said, it is not the fish, it is *the fishing* that 
is important."

"Ah, I see. I think." Daniel sat down alongside his friend and reaching 
behind his own head, slapped his neck as he felt the sting of an insect 
bite. After a few moments of silence, he continued. "We need to find them 
again, Teal'c. We need their help." His friend knew exactly who he was 
talking about. "Eleven years is a long time."

The SGC had insisted that Daniel and Teal'c be accompanied by a military 
team member on their mission to recruit Jack and Sam to help in 
recovering the lost icon. So few of the original members were now left in 
the SG teams that Daniel was glad that he had been able to persuade them 
to let Major Hailey join the group. He remembered her as a freckle-faced 
Lieutenant, prodigious in her scientific abilities and willingness to 
give opinions, and was therefore a little surprised when an athletic, 
confident and instantly likeable officer presented herself.

"I'm proud to be serving with you again, Dr. Jackson." she said. "And 
with you, Teal'c. I hope that I can earn your confidence and trust."

"Oh, I feel good about that already." came the reply. "And please call me 
Daniel." He couldn't resist the thought that their age difference was the 
same as another well-known couple. "May I call you Jennifer?"

"I prefer Jen, please."

Teal'c observed the exchange in silence.

That moment had proved to be the best of the mission for Daniel. Their 
violent capture and abduction by a group of heavily-armed men one day 
after arrival on P2T-756, where they knew there was a 'JS Trading' depot, 
was at the opposite end of his personal spectrum.

*end of kcabhsalf*

After another hour of discomfort, the bright evening sunlight came as a 
surprise when they were emptied out of the waggon. Hailey was now 
conscious again and they were quickly herded into a fenced area with 
several coarsely-dressed strangers, both men and women. They had not long 
to wait before a well-known figure appeared before them on a raised dock 
and ordered silence.

"For those of you who don't know it yet, you now belong to JS Trading." 
said Sam in a strong voice. "And when I say *belong*, that means that you 
have the right to a fair wage, food basics and shelter. You do *not* have 
freedom of movement. Under the laws of this world, you are technically 
known as 'debentured labour', and can only leave our employment when we 
say so. Any attempts to leave without that permission will be punished 
severely. This is the only warning you will get!"

"That's slavery!" shouted one man at the back. Daniel, already in shock 
at the sight of someone he would never have believed could behave like 
this, stood in open-mouthed amazement when Jack appeared alongside Sam 
and pointed out the man to a guard. The guard ran to the rear and 
unceremoniously dragged the man away.

"You will be given work clothes, a meal and shown to your quarters." 
continued Sam, pointing in the direction of a heavily-built stockade a 
few hundred metres away. "We start work at dawn tomorrow. Now follow the 
supervisors."

Daniel thought that Sam and Jack must have recognised the three of them 
in the crowd, but he had no idea what was in store for them. Above all, 
he could not take in the change in his friends' demeanour and actions 
since their time together at the SGC. He raised his arm and started to 
call out, but they had turned away from the assembled workers. He felt 
Teal'c's arm restraining his, and saw his curt shake of the head.

                         *******************

"What's that awful smell?" asked Daniel as the first glow of the dawn sky 
appeared. They were standing in a group by the corral, shivering slightly 
and talking quietly. He wrinkled his nose.

"Pigs." replied Jen Hailey. "My folks raised them. Know the smell 
anywhere."

"I heard the foreman say that our job today is to heard them through the 
Stargate in batches of 500." added Teal'c.

"And how many are there in total?" asked Daniel, starting to wish he 
hadn't eaten breakfast.

"Nearly five thousand, I believe." replied Teal'c, smiling wickedly at 
his friend's discomfort.

"Come on, Daniel!" laughed Hailey. "Don't wimp out now! We've just got to 
play along until they recognise it's us here."

It wasn't quite the longest day of Daniel's life, but it came close. The 
smell, the dust and the physical effort brought back his allergies and by 
the time evening came, he was more than willing for 'Jen' to spoon feed 
him soup as he lay sniffling and red-eyed on his bed, a headache thumping 
behind his temples. They had been so busy all day and had only caught 
sight of Sam and Jack on horseback a few times, herding the livestock 
with the rest. They seemed to be working just as hard as their employees.

Teal'c returned to their communal room in mid-evening and took in the 
scene before him. Daniel had fallen asleep exhausted, and the Jaffa noted 
with a smile that Hailey had curled up alongside him and joined him in 
slumber, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. He had 
intended to tell Daniel that a plea to the foreman for his re-assignment 
to a less dusty job would be considered, but he had to report for work 
with the rest next morning.

Teal'c sat for a while in meditation. He realised that the O'Neill's were 
deliberately not recognising their friends and knew that the reason would 
become clear in due course. But why they were doing these things, he had 
absolutely no idea.

                         *******************

Chapter 3 - Hot Stuff

"Here he comes now." said Sam, as a stranger's waggon drew up outside 
their office. "Ready?"

"Yes, but I want to play the hard guy this time!" replied Jack, as he 
stood up from behind the big desk, donning his jacket. "You did it the 
last three times. Getting to like it too much!"

"Gone soft again!" Sam smiled back at him. This was a game they had 
played regularly over the last few years. The truth was, most sellers 
were easy to deal with and manipulate, and many recognised the game for 
what it was. So their asking prices started out ridiculously high and 
ended up only slightly lower than they had hoped for - low enough to know 
that JS Trading was not to be messed with, but good enough to come back 
for more in future.

"Is Ari ready with our *audience*?" asked Jack.

Sam looked out of the open window again and raised a thumb to their 
waiting foreman, who unobtrusively nodded in response, turned and ushered 
half a dozen of their workers to sit on wooden benches outside an 
adjacent building to await their next work detail. Daniel, Teal'c and Jen 
Hailey were amongst them.

The caller dismounted his waggon and one of the JS Trading employees 
approached to tend the horses. The tall, bearded man slapped the dust off 
his faded long coat, looking around carefully as he walked towards the 
office, where Jack and Sam greeted him with a handshake and brief words 
of welcome. The door closed behind them, but their drifting voices could 
still be heard outside. Two of the waiting workers continued a quiet 
conversation between themselves, but the four others could not help but 
listen inquisitively to the sounds from within.

At first the conversation was hardly discernible, but soon raised voices 
were coming clearly from the building.

"Don't try to tell me that those pieces will sell on an open market 
without the cops sniffing round!" they heard Sam proclaim. "You either 
lifted them yourself or you're pushing them for someone else who did!"

"I didn't come here to be insulted!" replied the seller. "They're genuine 
goods of the realm, you can see from the receipt."

"Crap! You could have gotten that paper ten minutes ago down the road at 
the printer's shop." continued Sam.

""Sam! Let's just calm down a minute here!" came Jack's slightly quieter 
voice. "This inventory list is *interesting*, and Conal here doesn't 
strike me as a dishonest man."

The conversation died back in volume, with only occasional words reaching 
the now attentive audience outside. It was Sam's voice that raised the 
tempo again. "And I say not a centar more, with all the trouble it'll 
take to move it on!" The stranger suddenly appeared in the doorway, but 
did not come out, as Jack ushered him back to the desk with some soothing 
words and gestures. The discussions continued for another five minutes 
before he reappeared outside with Jack, and they shook hands.

"Good to do business with you, Conal." said Jack. "Er, sorry she gave you 
such a hard time." he continued in a lower voice.

"Yeah, mine can be like that, too!" replied the visitor with a grin. 
"Maybe we should let the two of them deal next time while we take ale?"

"Good idea!" smiled Jack conspiratorially, turning round and gesturing to 
Ari to organise the unloading of the goods in their nearby warehouse. The 
foreman nominated Teal'c and Daniel to follow the waggon as he got up 
alongside Conal, and they departed slowly.

Jack watched their retreat and turned back into the office, to be greeted 
by a huge grin on Sam's face. He couldn't resist breaking into the same 
expression and they exchanged a 'high five'.

"I still want to be the hard man next time." he said.

"Only if you're quick enough, dearest, only if you're quick!"

                         *******************

Jen Hailey took the large simmering pan from the stove and poured their 
soup as soon as she saw Teal'c and Daniel returning that evening. She 
allowed them only a few mouthfuls before asking the inevitable questions.

"Most of the stuff was crated, but some was just wrapped in sacking. We 
took a look when we could and it seemed to be a collection of paintings 
and art works, like small statues and ornaments." explained Daniel.

"Any inscriptions in languages you know?" asked Jen.

"An interesting question." replied Teal'c. "There were indeed Goa'uld 
hieroglyphs on one object, but I did not observe sufficient of the 
surface to understand its origin."

"We unloaded them into a locked area of the warehouse." Daniel continued. 
"It looked like there was a lot more of the same already on the shelves. 
Ari chained up the door again when we left."

"Any markings on the crates to suggest possible destinations?" enquired 
Jen, her interest unabated.

"A few." said Teal'c, finishing his soup a little noisily. "It would seem 
to be a regular trade across several planets."

"Do you think it's all legitimate? I mean, that seller this afternoon 
didn't look a top-drawer dealer." she persisted.

"No I don't, and that's what worries me." said Daniel. "I could believe 
that Jack might run close to the wind, but Sam never would. At least, the 
Sam we used to know wouldn't. I think. But she's changed since we saw her 
last, if this afternoon's meeting was anything to go by. In fact, they 
seem to work very close to each other, don't you think?"

"Indeed they do." mused Teal'c, more to himself than his companions.

Later, as he lay awake meditating, long after Jennifer Hailey had once 
again fallen asleep in Daniel's arms, he heard a faint noise by the door 
of their dormitory and looked up. Ari was beckoning to him, his hand just 
visible in the moonlight flooding in through the window. He rose silently 
and followed the foreman across the yard.

                         *******************

Daniel didn't know how much more of this he could take. Another three 
days of menial labour - whether herding livestock or handling dry goods - 
had seen his personal discomfort rise and fall on a daily basis. They 
hardly saw the owners of JS Trading except when clients were paying their 
dues or when either came to instruct Ari on new jobs. And when he asked 
to see them privately, he was treated by the head man as though he hardly 
existed. 

His attempts to get Teal'c during their evenings together to speculate on 
why they were being ignored was met with his constant refusal to do just 
that.

"I trust O'Neill and Samantha." was the Jaffa's regular reply. "It is of 
no benefit to guess when all will be made clear to us."

"No, I won't accept that we wait around for something to happen!" 
insisted Daniel. "Maybe they have changed in eleven years. Look how 
competitive the traders are. There's no love lost when a job is up for 
bidding, and they certainly seem as hard as nails in fending off rivals 
and making sure they get paid!"

"I believe there will be a change soon, DanielJackson." said Teal'c. Jen 
glanced sharply at him, but his expression was as always, immutable.

                         *******************

Chapter 4 - Betrayal

Daniel, Teal'c and Jen Hailey sat on a small knoll with the foreman Ari, 
about 500 metres from the Stargate on Haven Minor. They had a clear view 
of Sam and Jack waiting by their waggon near the DHD. Earlier that day 
they had been taken to the warehouse and had loaded a good many packages 
and items from the secure area into the waggon. To their surprise, they 
had then been instructed to escort it through the Stargate to this world. 
The sudden transition from a cold, grey day to bright sunlight through 
the wormhole made for a pleasant change, so their one hour of waiting so 
far had been pleasant.

Daniel had slowly become more and more irritated with their situation. He 
had convinced himself that the time to act instead of waiting for 
developments would soon be upon them. He used the opportunity to question 
Ari about most of the things on his mind.

"May I ask, Ari, how long you have worked for JS Trading?" he enquired.

Ari seemed to be in a relaxed mood and was much more forthcoming than on 
previous occasions. "For around four standard years now." he replied. 
"They are fair bosses."

"They, er, seem rather strict to me." Daniel observed, deciding to push 
matters as far as he could. "It wasn't our choice to be forced to work 
for them. That man who objected on our first day was soon seen off."

"Some traders would have had him flogged for insolence." said Ari. "The 
law on Gryphon allows employers to take labour from the ranks of those 
deemed to be destitute. JS Trading pays fair rates, and the food and 
lodgings are adequate. That's more than you can say for many. Some of our 
current labour force are there by choice."

"But we weren't destitute!" exclaimed Jen. "We were abducted and taken 
there!"

"Sometimes the law upholders interpret the rules according to their own 
interests." replied Ari. "You had the appearance of vagrants when you 
arrived at the company, and that's enough for employers. Gryphon law is, 
as I indicated, in their favour. Any complaints?" he added in a tone of 
voice that did not seem as though a positive answer was called for.

"Does JS Trading operate on many worlds?" asked Daniel.

"It does. There are fifteen worlds with JST warehouses and offices, but 
they visit many more. It is still a small concern as traders go, worth 
only a few billion librae. That's not enough to be called 'large' on any 
one world. But they take the types of trade that the larger companies and 
Commerce Guilds do not service. I enjoy it - they are good at their job 
and treat me well."

"Do you travel with them to all these worlds?"

"I do, when the work requires."

"Where's your home world, Ari?" asked Daniel, feeling that he was getting 
somewhere.

"Avor." said Ari with pride. "I was raised by the brethren and was taken 
for a husband there. My wife no longer wishes to travel and tends our 
children, as well as those of our patrons when they are not travelling 
with their parents."

Daniel smiled. He and Teal'c, as well as the now-retired General Hammond, 
were amongst the small circle of people who knew the real story of Jack's 
'death' and Sam's subsequent 'nervous breakdown' eleven years before.

"They have two fine boys. They are good friends with my son and daughter: 
that is one more reason why I am happy working for them." continued Ari, 
smiling to himself.

 "So what are we waiting here for?" asked Jen. "Or rather, who?"

"A minor Goa'uld and his Jaffa." said Ari. "I do not know which one: the 
higher ranks do not sully their hands with trade or commerce."

"They trade with the Goa'uld?" cried Daniel in surprise. "I didn't think 
anyone would want to!"

"Few do, as they are a fearful race." replied Ari. "But the Goa'uld 
cannot take the Universe by force alone and need to trade to sustain 
their empire. But for those who dare, the rewards are great and payments 
are prompt - unlike some supposedly friendly races! Sam and Jack have 
been dealing with them since they started the business."

"But why do they need to continue trading, if they are worth so many 
billion librae?" asked Daniel. "They're rich beyond the dreams of most 
people on any world!"

"Because JS Trading operates on many worlds. Most of their wealth 
sustains their operations on a diverse basis, and large funds are needed 
to trade and pay taxes." Ari explained, a wry smile appearing. "Taxes, 
they call them! On some planets we openly bribe officials and others just 
to stay in business! Sam and Jack are only moderately placed in the 
society of their home world."

"Where is their home world?" asked Jen.

"They will tell you if they wish you to know."

Their attention was diverted by the sight and sound of the Gate 
activating. They watched Sam and Jack stand clear as a party of Jaffa ran 
through, brandishing staff weapons but not pointing them at the traders. 
After a brief delay, a short man overdressed in the usual Goa'uld finery 
stepped through the Event Horizon and stood on the steps leading down 
from the portal. Sam and Jack moved to face him and their dialogue, 
unheard at this distance, began.

They saw the traders and the Goa'uld move to the rear of the waggon, and 
two Jaffa unloaded several boxes and wrapped items. The Goa'uld indicated 
one of the packages, and watched while Jack broke it open to reveal a 
small golden statue of what looked like a bird at this distance, 
glittering in the sunlight. The hairs on the back of Daniel's neck stood 
up as he recognised, or at least thought that he recognised the object.

Sam passed a sheaf of papers to the Goa'uld and they stood talking for 
several minutes. Eventually the Goa'uld signalled to a Jaffa at the rear, 
who came forward and passed across a heavy leather satchel, which Jack 
placed by his feet. Several Jaffa then ran to the waggon and unloaded the 
rest of the contents, taking the packages away either individually or in 
pairs. When the waggon was empty, the symbols on the DHD were pressed and 
they lost no time in travelling back to whence they came.

                         *******************

When the wormhole shut down, the watchers saw Jack bend down to pick up 
the satchel, only to have Sam goose him playfully as he did so. He shot 
upright, putting his arms round Sam's waist, picking her up and whirling 
her round, her arms round his neck. They seemed to be a picture of 
youthful happiness. She turned and signalled the waiting party to come 
down to the Stargate.

Daniel however remained quiet as they walked, his mouth held in a grimace 
as he seethed with fury over what he had seen take place in the last few 
minutes.

"Hello, space monkey!" cried Jack, stretching out his hand in greeting. 
"Ari," he continued, "time to drop the stage act for our good friends. 
Meet Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and former Lieutenant - now a Major, I guess! 
- Hailey of the Earth's SGC.

Simultaneously Sam walked over to Teal'c and embraced him, his face 
breaking into a ridiculous grin. "Teal'c" she cried. "How we've missed 
you! You look so well now."

"Likewise, Samantha." he replied.

"Hailey. Good to see you're still with the SGC." said Jack, and she 
nodded in response, shaking his proffered hand.

"Sam, Jack." said Daniel coldly, refusing the offer of Jack's 
outstretched hand, his face having lost none of the anger that had been 
building.

"Daniel?" asked Jack, looking at him uncertainly. "Look, we're sorry 
about the play-acting, but we needed you to remain unknown until we were 
sure that no-one in the workforce was spying on us."

"Jack," he replied in an icy tone, "what have you just sold to the 
Goa'uld?"

"Oh, just the usual art collector's stuff, you know - paintings, 
ornaments, and a couple of icons we came by. They go for that kind of 
thing."

"Where did that golden icon come from?" Daniel insisted. "The one that 
looked like a bird."

"How should I know, Danny? We handle lots like that during the course of 
a year. Bought it at a good price, traded it on!"

"And how do you think the owners of that icon feel about it? Especially 
if it was stolen from them in the first place!" Daniel turned to Sam, 
expecting a more reasonable response. "Sam, you must have checked its 
origins - surely you realise the spiritual values that people place on 
these religious artefacts?"

Her reply left him shocked. "Not our problem. It came with a genuine 
receipt and we took it in. As Jack said, we get offered a few like that."

Daniel was aghast. Sam had been his close friend all those years ago on 
SG-1, and they had shared so many similar viewpoints, but now here she 
was, indistinguishable in attitude from her husband's somewhat expected 
cynical outlook. He looked round at the foreman.

"Ari, you were raised by the brethren on Avor. Did you recognise that 
icon the Goa'uld have just taken away?"

"Yes, I did." he replied. "It was almost certainly their Symbol of 
Lineage, a most revered icon."

"And it means nothing to any of you that the Goa'uld now have possession 
of it? That they will almost certainly use that fact to coerce the 
brethren into at the very least softening their religious opposition! How 
could you do such a thing?"

"We're traders, Daniel. We trade." replied Jack tersely. "What's so bad 
about paying people for goods instead of just robbing them from their 
worlds like we did on SG-1? Does calling them 'artefacts' make that all 
right?"

"So you've abandoned Earth for commercial rewards, have you?" Daniel 
almost shouted. "And Sam, I can't believe the change in you! You used to 
care about people! Now you and Jack are like peas in a pod. What 
changed?"

"Don't judge books by their covers, *Daniel*." said Sam, her own temper 
rising. "We only just survived a bad beating eleven years ago because a 
Goa'uld spy on Earth gave us away. Can you tell me who in the SGC leaked 
the existence of some of our mission documents and reports to the 
authorities on Huygens Four last year? The cops there tried to nail us 
and take our children too! Tell me who did that, eh?"

"But that doesn't excuse selling stolen goods to the enemy!" replied 
Daniel. "Nothing does!"

"Just calm down, Daniel." Jack interjected in a quieter voice. "Look, why 
don't you come back with us to see some more of what we do. It's not all 
like this. We've only been able to provide all the intelligence reports 
and technical gizmos for Earth by being accepted as traders everywhere. 
We can't be seen to be too selective in what we take on."

"Maybe one day." replied Daniel. "But right now, I want no more 
involvement in this. Let me go home. Come on, Teal'c, Jen. Let's go." He 
moved towards the DHD but stopped without looking round when he realised 
that his colleagues were not following. He stiffened his back, his fists 
clenched tightly at his sides.

"I'm sorry, Danny." said Jen. "But I think it's my duty to take them up 
on their offer right now."

"I too, DanielJackson." added Teal'c.

With a stone face, Daniel dialled the co-ordinates for Crucis 3A and 
stepped through the wormhole alone. The others watched him go in silence.

                         *******************

Chapter 5 - The Price

Jen Hailey and Teal'c travelled in an awkward silence for much of the 
journey after Daniel's departure. However, by the time they reached Sam 
and Jack's house on Mythor, they knew to put their immediate, somewhat 
confused feelings behind them and take in the hospitality on offer. In 
fact, it was easy to do, as the white-walled, red-roofed Mediterranean-
style villa they entered was simply stunning, set on several levels on 
the side of a hill within a beautiful ornamental garden. "Sam's pride and 
joy." explained Jack. "The front garden's all her doing. I'm more of a 
'rolling acres' kind of guy myself. As you'll see at the back."

As Sam and Jack walked through the gates, two brown-haired, blue-eyed 
boys - obviously theirs even from a distance - rushed up to greet them, 
unabashed by the strangers present. A red-haired, strikingly handsome 
woman stood in the doorway to the house with two more children, and Ari 
walked straight up to embrace her and his family. He introduced her as 
Karinne to the newcomers.

Jen remained polite and formal, but Teal'c lost more of his legendary 
reserve during the next two hours than ever before. He had previously 
only seen Jack and Sam as fighting colleagues on SG-1 and as hard-nosed 
traders during the last few days. The total contrast of their situation 
as parents brought to the surface emotions he normally kept well-hidden, 
the more so when Jacomb and Danil revealed how much they had been told 
about him by their parents. He was already a hero to them, and they 
monopolised his time before dinner with demands for explanations and 
stories about events and people he'd half-forgotten in many instances.

Sam and Jen engaged in a long conversation about the SGC and the states 
of different branches of science, while Jack was content to busy himself 
with serving drinks and finishing the dinner preparations started earlier 
by Karinne. By dusk, the boys had been despatched to bed, and Ari and his 
family retired to the guest house in the large rear gardens.

Dinner was a relaxed affair, the food and wine excellent, with 
conversation about serious matters deferred by unspoken agreement. 
Except, of course, the question that Jen had been dying to ask since they 
had cleaned up and changed into evening clothes after being shown their 
rooms. Fortunately Sam's clothes had fitted her quite well, whereas 
Jack's largest casual tunic could best be said to be a 'snug' fit on 
Teal'c.

"Why have you both got tattoos on your forearms?"

Sam extended her right arm so that Jen could see the fabulously intricate 
gold filigree patterns. As she looked closely, Hailey realised that they 
were not at all like coloured patterns drawn on the surface of the skin, 
but subcutaneous wire-like lines that had, over the years become an 
integral part of her forearm.

"It's an im'ri." Sam explained. "Jack has the only matching one in 
existence. They're neural nets produced in unique pairs here on Mythor 
for people who want to dedicate their lives to each other. When we're 
together, they extend our consciousness of each other, so that we can 
both sense and experience the other's feelings and moods." She raised and 
eyebrow briefly at her husband in response to the playful, unseen, 
somewhat carnal 'feeling' that he managed to conjure up.

"But how did they attach them?" asked Jen, more intrigued with this than 
anything she'd seen so far.

"During the marriage ceremony, there's a focussed beam of narrow-
frequency....." Sam began, only to be interrupted by Jack.

"It's a secret of the Mythoran priesthood." he said quickly. "And no 
scientist is gonna strip away the mystique of one of the best things that 
ever happened to me!" He glared at Sam and she felt the redness of 
embarrassment rising. He continued "There's a beam of light that kind of 
welds it into your arm. It hurt like crazy for a few moments but that was 
all."

"So could you sense each other straight away?" asked Jen.

"No, it took weeks and months for the sensations to develop." said Sam. 
"It was difficult too, until we learned to expect and control the 
extremes of emotion that we felt, like when we were having a row, for 
instance. One of the worst times was when we both got beaten up and ended 
up in the SGC infirmary."

"And the best?" asked Jen hopefully.

"Giving birth!" said Sam.

"Saturday nights!" laughed Jack simultaneously, earning a mock glare from 
Sam.

"So, can anyone have them if they want?"

"I thought so at first." replied Sam. "What we didn't know is that the 
priests have psychics among them who conduct the marriage ceremonies 
where im'ri bonding has been requested. If they don't sense deep enough 
compatibility then they won't proceed with that part of the ceremony. We 
only discovered later that around 80 per cent of applicants are refused, 
either before the ceremony or during it. The process is irreversible, and 
if one partner dies then the other is unlikely ever to bond to someone 
else." She exchanged a brief soulful look with her husband, and 
immediately Jen knew that they must have discussed this very seriously in 
view of their age difference, but Sam continued with a smile. "And I 
wouldn't change a thing. It was the one of the best moments of my life 
too."

At that moment Teal'c glimpsed the true depth of their relationship, 
recalling the tension that had built up between them in their seven years 
in the SGC before Jack had left when he thought he'd lost her, causing 
Sam to realise what she'd done and starting her one-year campaign to get 
him back into her life. They'd never imagined the joys to come and the 
ways they so obviously filled each other's lives. The thought occurred to 
him that perhaps the im'ri enhancement had made little difference to the 
outcome, and that they would have been here together just the same, just 
as close. He observed O'Neill's thinning grey hair, and noted the deep 
lines etched in his weather-beaten face. He had gained weight as people 
of his age do, but was still supremely fit and muscular. Sam too had lost 
the slimmer features of her youth and her outdoor working life coupled 
with being the mother of two energetic boys, made for a more mature look. 
Neither she nor Jack seemed have an ounce of vanity about themselves.

"You have prospered as traders." said Teal'c. "Yet in my time, I have 
seen few people living in fine houses like this who are prepared to 
undertake arduous labour themselves."

"Hey, we only got lucky the last few years!" exclaimed Jack. "When Jacomb 
was born we just had a rented apartment above my first office here. I 
never figured I would sit around paying someone to let me get fat and 
lazy! And it took Sam's brains to get things moving in the right 
direction."

"Well, I wasn't the one who thought up the six-way barter deal that got 
us really going!" said Sam. "What was it now? You traded sand from a 
desert world to a planet that was sinking into salt bogs. Then sea water 
from the liquid planet and desalination equipment to the desert world. 
Er, yes, then welding technology from an industrial planet to the 
fishermen of the sea world so they could build better boats, and you 
organised the export of ozone in tanks from the electric-powered 
industrial world to another planet that had a deficient ozone layer. 
Followed by livestock from that world back to the industrial planet and 
manure to the desert world so they could grow better crops. I didn't have 
anything to do with that! I thought he was a few sandwiches short of a 
picnic when we didn't have any money to see for it during the first few 
months. But then they started paying our commission fees and we netted 
over half a billion librae within a year. We never looked back after 
that."

"Boy did we celebrate then!" laughed Jack. "And that's how Danil came to 
join his big brother. Talking of picnics, though, it was Sam's craving 
for bacon sandwiches when she was expecting him that brought us the trade 
in pigs. Sorry you two had to get so close and personal with them!"

"Hey, I loved it!" said Jen. "Brought back my time growing up on my 
folks' farm. Daniel's allergies came back with a vengeance, though."

"How did?...." Teal'c started to ask, but was cut off by Sam.

"When I was pregnant, I made sure I had packed lunches with me when we 
travelled through the gates." she explained. "I offered a bacon sandwich 
to a buyer on one world and he'd never tasted anything like it. Well, 
they say most vegetarians who give up do it because of the smell of 
grilled bacon. They didn't have pigs on that world, but they surely do 
now!"

Later, as Sam took her turn by clearing up, their guests sampled the 
local versions of brandy and coffee, served up by Jack. When Sam rejoined 
them, Jack knew that the time for pleasantries had passed.

                         *******************

"Let's talk about what we've done and where we go from here." he said, 
looking at Teal'c and Jen in turn. Sam gently nodded her agreement.

"First, I am ashamed to admit that we have used Daniel's good nature 
against him and abused his friendship. He is right to be mighty angry 
about what he's seen us doing, and we're not proud of it. I hope that 
we'll straighten things out with him in due time, but if not, it's the 
price we and he will be paying for what we've done."

"I will be happy to assist in repairing that relationship." stated 
Teal'c. "I realised from the start that you were holding back many things 
from us for good reasons. Ari told me to be patient and I trusted him. He 
is a good friend to you, O'Neill."

"When did Ari tell you that?" asked Jen, surprised and a little upset to 
find that Teal'c had concealed this information.

"Never mind that now." Jack continued. "The point is, we deliberately set 
out to acquire or steal a number of religious icons and works of art from 
different sects for no other reason than to sell them to the Goa'uld. You 
and Daniel have just been treated to a stage show demonstrating that 
these were the real McCoy. The Goa'uld treasure these items because they 
can use them to exert influence over the former owners. You can bet your 
life that they'll store them in really secure places back on the home 
worlds of the various Lords."

"But why?" asked Jen. "Everybody will think you've abandoned all ties to 
Earth."

"That's what we want them to believe." said Sam. "You can tell your CO 
that we won't be stopping sending them the Intel or the technology. But 
we won't allow ourselves to be put in a position again where we can be 
betrayed by a Goa'uld spy on Earth or even some NID moron who doesn't 
happen to like the shape of our noses."

"But have you not given the Goa'uld a powerful hold over our allies and 
neutral peoples with these icons?" observed Teal'c.

"In the short term, yes." Jack admitted. "But my resident genius has 
developed a little surprise for them that hopefully will bite 'em in 
their asses before they even know it's happening."

All eyes were upon Sam, and she glanced briefly at Jack for reassurance 
before continuing. "Trojan horses." she said. "Beware of Mythorans 
bearing gifts! Do you remember the time dilation device that the Asgard 
used to trap the Replicators on that world?"

"What, the ten to the fourth power temporal slowdown device? I read your 
report." said Hailey. "The ten hours elapsed time on their world that's 
been twelve years in our space-time?"

"That's the one." replied Sam. "Well, I got another one from the Asgard 
two years ago to see whether I could adapt it for other uses. I 
discovered that I could miniaturise it and operate on just a trickle of 
power if I changed it to gradually increase the time gradient instead of 
just switching it on full in one go."

"Aaagh!" sighed Jen, seeing the implications straight away. "So you 
implanted one in that icon you've just sold to the Goa'uld. And they 
won't notice any differences at first, but the planet it's on will 
gradually become more and more out of step with the rest of the Universe 
until it's too late! And if they don't know where the device is hidden, 
they'll stay living at a snail's pace! Brilliant!"

"Who says there's just one?" observed Jack, a wry smile on his face. 
"We've been doing this for a while now. Noticed any particular System 
Lords failing to make the same impact they once did?"

"I have heard of a few such." replied Teal'c. "A most ingenious weapon, 
Samantha."

"And you expect Daniel to make a real fuss in public about the loss of 
the icons and the impact on their owners to convince the remaining 
Goa'uld to continue acquiring them!" said Jen excitedly. "Wow!"

"Daniel has a kind heart and a deep moral sense of right and wrong." said 
Sam. "Believe me, if we could have thought of another way, we would have 
done it. I'm not sure he'll ever forgive us, and he'd be right not to."

"But there's one thing more, Major." said Jack, surprising Jen by 
reverting to formal address. "Whoever was selected by the SGC to 
accompany Daniel on this mission to find us would have been contacted by 
someone from the NID. That someone would have made it very clear to you 
that we were not to be trusted, and that we were probably acting like 
agents who'd 'gone native' and were out of their control. Am I right?"

Jen seem transfixed by the stare he was giving her. She merely nodded in 
response.

"Jen, it's not that we don't trust you individually, but I guess you've 
had it made clear to you that your future career depends in no small way 
on giving that person detailed information about us and our operations." 
said Sam. Seeing Hailey nod again, she continued, "We'd be grateful if 
you didn't mention our home here on Mythor. It's the only place where the 
boys are truly safe."

"I promise." she replied earnestly.

"And if it looks like they're going to make a move against us anyway," 
said Jack, "then please would you remind them that we have space 
freighters with the radar cross-section of a sparrow and a plentiful 
supply of works of art. Comprende?"

                         *******************

It gave Sam and Jack no particular pleasure to learn of Daniel's success 
in making the theft and sale or religious artefacts a subject for public 
debate and outrage on several worlds over the next few months. But their 
surreptitious trade continued and the Goa'uld behaved exactly as 
expected, their greed and lust for power driving their acquisitive 
instincts. Eight more Goa'uld strongholds were starting their unseen and 
unfelt deceleration from the rest of the Universe.

They were working in their office on Gryphon when Teal'c arrived 
unannounced. He lost no time in giving them the unwelcome news.

"DanielJackson has gathered some followers and mounted a raid on a 
Goa'uld world to recover the Avorian icon." he said. "I have not told him 
of your activities. I fear that even if he remains free, he will do 
untold damage by removing the time device from the planet should he 
eventually succeed, however many years in our future that should be."

"Shit!" hissed Sam, glancing at her husband. "We didn't think of that 
one."

                         *******************


Ten Thousand Days
By Ted Sadler - ted.sadler@ntlworld.com


RATING: FR-C+

WARNINGS: Minor language

CATEGORY: Action/Adventure, Romance

SPOILERS: Solitudes, Unnatural Selection 

TIME FRAME: This is the last installment of the stories The Trader's Wife 
and The Price of Life. It will make a lot more sense if you can recall 
those or read them again.
 
PAIRING: Sam/Jack, Daniel/Other
 
SUMMARY: Can Daniel be rescued from a time-warp? 
 
DISCLAIMER: "Stargate SG-1" and its characters are the property of 
MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp., Showtime/Viacom and 
USA Networks, Inc. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no 
money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The 
original characters, situations and story are the property of the 
author(s), and may not be republished or archived elsewhere without the 
author's permission.


                         *******************
 
Chapter 1 - The Ten Thousandth Day

"The next president's got a hard act to follow" said the man sitting at 
the table behind Daniel Jackson. "I can't remember as many changes as 
we've seen in the last five years - most of them for the good, as well."

Daniel smiled grimly to himself, but it didn't go unnoticed by his 
partner. He broadened his smile as he looked at her - something he hadn't 
been able to stop doing these last ten days since she and the others 
around the table had lifted him from the sealed-off Goa'uld planet. He 
still saw Jennifer Hailey in one sense as the young woman he'd fallen for 
six months ago when they'd set out to find who was selling precious 
religious icons to the Goa'uld. But now, instead of being fifteen years 
his junior, she was a stunning, mature woman matching his own forty six 
years of age.

'Damn time dilation!' The thought ran through him for the thousandth 
time. 'And damn Sam and Jack as well!' He still didn't know whether what 
they had done in atonement for using him would ever be enough for real 
forgiveness. Sure, he didn't want to go on hating them for a betrayal 
that wasn't really one - depending on your viewpoint of course - but the 
consequences of his being used like that rankled and the feelings would 
not lie down. Perhaps in time......

He turned his attention back to Jen, and marvelled again at her instant 
(for him) transformation from thirty one to forty six. Fuller in the face 
and body, but still so attractive, the faint lines round her eyes only 
adding character. And, oh! Those freckles on her nose, cheeks and 
forearms. Over the last three days he'd taken to wondering how she 
thought of him, frozen in time for fifteen years, unchanging in 
appearance from the older man she'd fallen for so far back in her own 
past. The mischievous look in her eyes as she gazed back at him told him 
that he'd be silly to reject her now, and to be honest, that was the 
furthest thing on his mind.

He reluctantly turned his attention back to the proceedings of the 
Interplanetary Traders Guild President's Dinner, held in the sumptuous 
and graceful surroundings that characterised so many of the buildings on 
Mythor. He still could not get used to Sam and Jack's appearance, which 
had shocked him so much a few days ago. They were *old*. He had stared 
open-mouthed when he had clambered out of the rescue ship into the cargo 
hold of their space freighter just over a week ago. As far as he was 
concerned, they'd crash-landed on the Goa'uld world in Earth year 2015 
and been taken off again half a day later to find that the year was now 
mysteriously 2031.

Jack, as the retiring Guild President, sat in the place of honour at the 
top table with Sam beside him on his right. His wispy grey hair topped a 
craggy, deeply-suntanned face that was so familiar and yet so changed. He 
looked superbly fit for a seventy-nine year old, but at the same time had 
become like a favourite grandfather figure. Only his deep brown eyes 
remained as Daniel had known them. His elder son Jacomb looked more like 
the Jack he had known back in the days of the first Abydos mission.

And Sam...... Well, still so recognisably herself, but her golden hair 
now mostly grey, her lined face still so attractive yet mature. He just 
couldn't get used to the fact that she was now sixty four years old. Like 
Jack, she was more thick-set than he had known before, but had a grace 
that was obvious to the eyes of most. She caught Daniel staring at her, 
and briefly flashed him a nervous smile before the person on her right 
engaged her in conversation again.

On this formal occasion everyone was expected to follow the correct 
Mythoran dress code - sleeveless gowns for the women and short-sleeved 
tunics for the men. There was no denying the visual impact of so many 
guests whose only differences in style were the colours they chose - 
white, grey, dark blue or black, and their choice of jewellery. Jack was 
the exception, wearing no rings or necklaces, but it was his last time to 
wear the President's platinum Chain of Office. Sam too had chosen only a 
simple circlet, but the exotic iridescent stone that hung at her throat 
served to highlight her still-fascinating eyes. And since this was after 
all the home world of the ultimate wedded bond, the lighting was 
especially arranged to show off the im'ri implantations worn by several 
couples throughout the grand hall.

Daniel still marvelled at the way Jack and Sam communicated so intimately 
by a combination of looks, gestures and relatively few words, as did the 
other bonded couples. They were both speaking far more to neighbouring 
guests and officials than to each other, yet it seemed as though nothing 
important was escaping their enhanced dialogue.

He looked back past Jen at the others seated at his own table. Teal'c - 
the man he'd thought to be his truly close friend, yet whom he was still 
learning to fully trust again after their adventures of the last few 
months. Teal'c too was now fifteen years older than before, but showed 
little visual change to the casual eye. However Daniel had seen how he 
tired more quickly these last few days - still a superb athlete compared 
to the average Tau'ri specimen, but not the same as he was when they'd 
first met.

Either side of Teal'c sat the O'Neill children, who still treated him as 
their hero. 'Children!' thought Daniel sarcastically. 'Children to me six 
months ago, now adults of twenty six and twenty four. Damn time 
dilation!' he sighed again. Jacomb, so like his father had been, a 
sometimes reckless, forceful daredevil who nevertheless carried an aura 
of caring leadership. And Danil, named after himself, but so unlike his 
elder brother. You could see some of his mother's facial characteristics 
in the half-light, other times not. The brains of the family, even more a 
technical genius than Sam had been at her brilliant best. And furthest 
from him were Ari, Sam and Jack's foreman, and his attractive wife 
Karinne.

The deep reverberating note of a large gong sounded, and conversation in 
the hall died out slowly. On the dais, Jack rose from his seat to start 
his retiring President's address, exchanging a brief brilliant smile with 
Sam as he steadied himself.

"Members of the Society and Honoured Guests." he began before pausing 
momentarily. "It has been an honour to serve. These traditional words are 
self-evidently true for any President who has had the good fortune to 
make it through to the full term of office. Yet to me they have a 
personal significance beyond even that, which I will explain in a 
moment." He paused again, looking at the host of expectant faces around 
him.

"My five anni as President have coincided with the most significant event 
to befall the known universe in many, many generations. I refer of course 
to the still incomplete but certain defeat of the Goa'uld as the 
enslavers of countless peoples." He waited until prolonged applause died 
away. "Of course, there may be some traders who regret the passing of a 
clientele that always paid its bills on time...." He paused again as the 
laughter subsided.

"But mark my words. The opportunities for free trade amongst emancipated 
worlds have never been as abundant as now. We can now be assured of fewer 
restrictions on technology and industrial goods. If sold and used wisely, 
great benefits for the living standards and future prospects of so many 
races will follow. We are all, in this Guild, wealthy beyond the dreams 
of the vast majority of people alive in the Gate-connected universe. Let 
us use these profits with equal wisdom and generosity to avoid the worst 
excesses of pollution and exploitation that have characterised the past." 
More applause caused him to halt again.

"It is my privilege tonight to reveal to you one of the major factors, 
and the identity of some of the true geniuses, that have brought about 
the downfall of the Goa'uld." Sam suddenly looked up at him in alarm, but 
he motioned with his hand to calm her, and she felt the sudden panic 
disappear through their highly-developed *feeling* for each other.

"Many of you know my wife Samantha." he continued. "She is the person who 
adapted and developed the means to isolate so many Goa'uld worlds, as a 
direct result of which their power base collapsed so rapidly." Gasps of 
surprise and more applause rippled throughout the hall. Sam looked down 
modestly at the table, but couldn't resist a broad smile appearing.

"As many of you also know, these worlds have been *insulated* behind a 
temporal slow-down field that means that life continues as normal for the 
inhabitants, but ten thousand times more slowly than in the universe 
outside their atmospheres. One hour for them is equivalent to four 
hundred and sixteen standard days for the rest of us. Their Stargates no 
longer function as further dialling signals from other worlds are blocked 
by the delayed previous signal still being played out at the arrival 
Gates. Space ships passing through the time-change boundary in the 
atmosphere lose their computers because the front end of the ship is 
suddenly ageing ten thousand times slower than the back end." He paused 
and stage-whispered *sotto voce* to Sam, "Hey, am I getting this right so 
far, dear?" The audience responded with more laughter. Jack's attitude to 
high technology was well-known to fellow Guild members. Daniel now 
realised what had caused his Tel'tak craft to suddenly go out of control, 
resulting in the need to be manually crash-landed on the surface.

Looking up again, Jack continued, "Of course, the Goa'uld still rule on 
these planets, if a little slowly. But competent armies and civil 
administrations now exist in sufficient numbers in the United Universe to 
be able to deal with these remaining planets one by one. And of course, 
the traders will follow!" More applause rippled round.

"But how did we get the Goa'uld to deliver their own means of 
destruction? Quite simply, we let them be taken in by their own avarice. 
We acquired, sometimes I will admit not by completely fair means, a 
number of art works, cultural and religious symbols and icons, implanted 
them with the time-delay devices, and sold them to the willing buyers! 
They could not wait to take these coveted items back to their home 
worlds, with the result that within three weeks of universe time, they 
were unknowingly living at a snail's pace." Some of the audience 
responded with 'oohs' and 'aahs', pretending that they had known the 
principle all along but were merely awaiting details.

Jack stood straight and stared directly at Daniel. "I have a confession 
to make, Ladies and Gentlemen, of which I am not proud. In order to 
convince the Goa'uld of the desirability of acquiring such items, I 
callously used the good nature of my greatest friend without his 
knowledge. The Goa'uld fell for it, of course, thanks to his protests 
about the sale of these icons. But I wish to state before you all that I 
am truly, truly sorry for the way we used the good name of Dr. Daniel 
Jackson of the Crucis Archaeological Institute. His protests about our 
apparently callous actions stirred the hearts of millions on various 
worlds. But being a man of deeds as well as thoughts, he didn't stop 
there and unknowingly lead an expedition onto a time-warped planet to 
recover one of these valuable items."

Jack paused again, lifted his reading glasses from his nose and sought 
out Daniel in the audience. "Daniel, Sam and I ask publicly tonight to 
consider forgiving us, however long it takes. We used you, used your good 
nature to defeat the enemy. I never thought that we would succeed so well 
or at such cost to you and to ourselves. The fifteen years you have been 
missing from our time can never be compensated." A ripple of soft 
applause passed through the crowd but died away quickly.

Daniel blinked and the wave of emotion overtook him. Feeling that some 
kind of response was called for, he stood briefly and smiled at Jack, 
nodding his head. But deep down, he wasn't ready to go all the way yet, 
and Jack could instantly tell that further heart-searching talks lay 
ahead, when the time was right. Daniel sat down again, and Jen leaned 
across, squeezing his hand and kissing him on the cheek. He blinked 
several times in reaction to his state of inner conflict. 

Jack's duties as speaker had not finished, however, and the audience 
turned their attention back to him. "My final act as President of the 
Guild is to pay tribute to the person who has given me the life that I 
have, and if I have done some good work for the Guild, she has been the 
driving force and support that has made it all happen." He looked down at 
his wife. "Smile, dear, it's you again!"

As the guests burst into wild applause, Sam blushed as deep a red as 
anyone had ever seen, but couldn't help the joyous grin that seemed to 
cover her entire face. She stood up and leaned across to kiss him briefly 
before sitting down again. She would remember the next few moments for 
the rest of her life.

When all was silent again, Jack said, "Sam was a scientist when I met 
her, but I don't hold that against her any longer." Laughter ran round 
the hall. "The discoveries and inventions that she has made in her 
lifetime have revolutionised physics. Aided by Dr. Jackson and our great 
companion Teal'c, she has moulded particle physics, astronomical 
calculations and computing throughout the Gated worlds. She taught the 
Asgard to think illogically!" More laughter resounded. "And yet, for 
reasons I will never understand, she chose me as her life's companion. 
She saved my life by her quick thinking and bravery on many occasions, 
but never once made me feel small or insignificant. How could I ever 
resist that?"

He turned to face Sam again, to find she was looking up at him in awe. 
"One of our first misadventures together was to get stranded in an ice 
cave, cut off from everyone. We were dying together from the cold, and 
the last words I remember you saying to me, Sam, were 'It's been an 
honour to serve'. Well, the honour was mine Sam, so much so that after we 
were rescued and I was recovering, I knew that my life was the better for 
having you in it." Her smile broke out again.

"But clever scientist that you are, my dear," he continued, "I know 
there's one thing you haven't realised." A frown appeared but her smile 
remained. "Today marks the day that we have been together as im'ri bonded 
partners for ten thousand days. That's just over twenty seven Earth 
years." More applause, cheers and whistles abounded. As they died down, 
he spoke the words that finally caused her tears to flow. "And I have 
loved you and your obsession with your doohickies on every single one of 
them. Future Guild Presidents will count themselves lucky to have even 
half the support and joy from their partners that you have given me. 
Thank you, Samantha."

As tumultuous cheers and clapping began, Sam rose and threw her arms 
round his neck, and held him tight for several moments. Eventually they 
both turned to face the audience. Standing behind her with his left hand 
on her waist, he grasped her right hand in his and they raised their 
right arms together, their im'ri patterns in close contact flashing and 
sparkling in the spotlights.

                         *******************

Chapter 2 - What Price Fame?

The Deputy Director of the NID was in no mood to be held up in looking 
for explanations. "So you tell me, Barrett, why ex-USAF Major Samantha 
Carter is pictured here with a husband who supposedly died twenty seven 
years ago? And why a goddamned Traders' Union should be able to have such 
power as to limit our ability to establish an off-world economic 
dependency?" He passed across the picture of Sam and Jack standing 
together, receiving a standing ovation at the end of his retirement 
speech.

"I can't explain it either, Sir." replied Barrett, shifting nervously as 
he shuffled in the visitor's chair. 'Damn it!' he was thinking. 'Three 
weeks to retirement - I don't need this.'

"Didn't you know the woman once?" the Director continued. "How did we 
lose track of her?"

"She was discharged from the Air Force on medical grounds - nervous 
breakdown, I believe, after her husband died - supposedly. She went to 
ground after that and we just stopped surveillance, what with limited 
manpower resources and all."

"And her *dead* husband?"

"Er, her former CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill. He'd already taken a medical 
discharge and went off on an extended off-world spying mission for the 
old SGC, posing as a trader. She joined him a year later and for twenty 
years they carried on passing intel back to Stargate Command until that 
was wound up in '24. After that it seems they had no-one to report to - 
some snafu about transferring roles and responsibilities when the last of 
the staff got laid off - so they just carried on trading."

"So why can't we just get them to carry on reporting to us now?"

"Several reasons, Sir. First, they're no longer active in the field - 
O'Neill is seventy nine now, and she has no political ambitions. Second, 
they've 'gone native' as far as the Traders Guild is concerned - in fact, 
they *are* the Traders Guild. No-one following him as President of the 
Guild is going to change direction suddenly. They will continue to wield 
considerable influence in interplanetary commercial politics for years to 
come."

"So are you telling me that the Guild's schemes to regulate Earth's 
economic expansion plans were formulated by them? What would it take to 
remove them? Economic incentive?"

"Sir, you may not have seen the full details of the investigation into 
the Traders Guild." said Barrett diplomatically. "The whole Earth's GNP 
doesn't compare to the combined wealth of members of the Guild. Even 
individually, they couldn't be bought. They've had generations to build 
fortunes as a result of trading throughout the Gate network. Even the 
O'Neill's - their company is called SJ Trading, by the way, have amassed 
an incredible fortune by Earth's standards in less than thirty years. 
They're not for sale at any price."

"I see." replied the Deputy Director, remaining quiet as he thought these 
things through. After a minute or so, he sat up and smiled at Barrett.

"Well, thank you for your input, Captain. Now, I believe that you're 
retiring in a couple of weeks or so? Clearly you won't want to get 
involved in a matter as time-consuming as this so close to The Big Day. 
I'll send someone to be briefed by you. Expect them this afternoon. And, 
good work, by the way."

"Thank you, Sir." replied Barrett, standing up and leaving without 
ceremony, relieved to be out of it all.

As the door closed, the Deputy Director pressed the button on the secure 
line to his superior. "Sir? I'd like authorisation for a house cleaning 
operation. Off-world. Yes, Sir. Nothing traceable to Earth or the agency. 
Very quick, very clean. Thank you, Sir, I will."

                         *******************

Several thousand parsecs distant, Jonas Quinn, President and CEO of 
Kelownan Universal TV, made sure his reporting staff all understood their 
tasks for the next few hours. It was the day after Jack's retirement. He 
looked at each of them in turn.

"Interview Jackson to get his viewpoint on being manoeuvred into his 
campaign and his rescue." said the first newshound.

"Get the low-down on Hailey and why she abandoned her career and partner 
to go rescue him." said the next.

"Talk to the sons, find out their part in the rescue."

"Interview the next Guild President on policy, continuity, blah blah 
blah..."

"Don't undersell that element!" warned Jonas. "Try to get a statement on 
why they oppose the unregulated expansion of the Earth's dependencies. 
Yes, we think we know why," he interjected, anticipating the man's 
argument. "But get the official view. Never assume." He looked to the 
next person.

"The short straw!" replied the novice reporter. "Interview Teal'c. Break 
new ground by actually getting him to say anything revealing *at all*!" 
His comrades laughed and one ruffled his hair.

Jonas grinned too. "We all started somewhere!" he said. "But here's a 
tip..... Ice cream!" He carried on smiling at the man's look of 
puzzlement and moved on. "All right, girls and boys! You know how many 
news organisations would give their souls for the exclusive that we're 
getting today. Knock 'em dead!"

He turned and walked out of the room to the waiting aerocar sent by Sam 
and Jack, and was gone in moments to interview them - the CEO's 
prerogative, of course.

                         *******************

Chapter 3 - Shedding Light

Like so many visitors before him, Jonas could not fail to be impressed by 
Sam and Jack's multi-level villa stepping up the hillside, as he exited 
the aerocar near the ornamental front gates. White walls, red tile roofs 
- definitely Greek stylistic origins, he thought. Most of the world of 
Mythor was kept by its inhabitants in a state of aesthetic grace, without 
question or argument. The tradition had grown up over so many generations 
that allowing unkempt, dirty or ramshackle sites to develop was just 
unthinkable. 'Like Earth's Switzerland used to be before money became too 
important.' he found himself thinking, recalling a memorable vacation 
during the time he'd served on SG-1.

The ornate gates opened soundlessly as he approached and he passed 
through into the most exotic gardens he had ever seen. Other visitors had 
talked often about them, and how Sam had devoted so much of her soul into 
creating and maintaining her masterpiece. Even though he knew this, the 
water cascading gently down through the several levels of landscaped 
enclosures looked, sounded and smelled like nothing he'd ever 
experienced. Trees, bushes and flowers that he knew must have originated 
on many different worlds blended in a visual and olfactory treat, the 
perennially mild climate ensuring vibrant displays of purples, reds, 
yellows and blues at all times of the year. He spied an arbour at the far 
side of a pond, where a servant was laying the table for a meal.

As he strolled up the stone path towards the large polished wood front 
door to the porch, it swung open and Sam stood waiting to greet him. 
Jonas had grown used to seeing so many Mythorans habitually wearing robes 
and loose garments that it took him by surprise to see her in a chequered 
shirt and slacks that might be mistaken for jeans at a distance.

"You haven't changed much in five years, stranger!" smiled Sam as their 
outstretched hands came together. She pulled him towards her and kissed 
his cheek.

"Neither have you, Sam!" beamed Jonas. The last time they had met was on 
Kelowna, at the party celebrating Jonas' appointment as head of the 
national TV network. He turned and gestured at the gardens. "This is 
breathtaking, Sam. I'd heard about it but they didn't do justice."

"Why, thank you, Jonas." she purred. "It's been my dream for twenty 
years. It's only really looked like this for the last five. I kept adding 
to them while Jack was extending the house up the hill and landscaping 
the back. Come on through - he's looking forward to seeing you too." She 
led him through the atrium and up a flight of wide stone steps into a 
large lounge. A hand-woven rug in multiple shades of green covered the 
centre of the marble floor, surrounded by deep comfortable armchairs, and 
behind them an array of ornaments on wall shelves. Jonas could see other 
rooms leading off on three sides.

"How many rooms do you have, Sam? Are your sons still living at home?" 
asked Jonas.

"Twenty-three in all, not counting the guest lodge and my lab in the back 
garden." she replied. "Jacomb and Danil still have their own rooms for 
when they visit, but they're away most of the time these days. I suppose 
now that Jack's retired from being Guild President we'll have less 
visitors, but we'll never move. We built this place together and we'll 
both see out our days here. We love it. We've got smaller houses on other 
worlds, mostly to stay in when we're away on business, but this is 
*home*."

"No, er, grandchildren on the horizon?" asked Jonas tentatively.

"Not yet, but Jacomb's getting awfully interested in a red-haired girl - 
one of Karinne's nieces, actually. You never know." Sam explained.

"If we get to be grandparents before he's wed, he'll get my boot up his 
ass, octogenarian or not! And that's nothing compared to what he'd get 
from Ari." came a gruff voice from behind Jonas. He turned to meet Jack's 
huge smile and outstretched hand.

"Jack! You're looking well. Great speech last night, by the way - I saw 
the telecast. I bet Sam thought so too. Congratulations!" Jonas turned to 
see her smiling and blushing.

"Credit where it's due, that's all." said Jack. "I'd be nowhere without 
her."

"Works both ways, dearest." Sam chirped up. "Did you know he turned down 
an offer to become a Senator, Jonas?"

"Too many old farts in the job already." grunted Jack. "Anyhow, I kept 
getting this nightmare of turning into a ghost from the past - Kinsey! 
Don't get me wrong: it's a tough job. It just isn't me, is all."

                         *******************

"Where do you want to do your interview, Jonas?" asked Sam. "Shouldn't 
there be a cameraman or somebody to film us?"

"No, we've got these little holocams now." he replied, taking a small 
silver object from his pocket. "We can just set it up in the room 
anywhere. It not only photographs what it sees directly, but bounces 
signals off the walls and ceiling to build up a three-dimensional image 
of the room and its occupants in real-time. We'll cut and paste the 
images to give continuity for the broadcast tonight." He had Sam's 
attention but Jack was already in a state of obvious withdrawal.

"I see!" said Sam enigmatically. "And the computer-generated holo images 
are so realistic now that you can make it look as though we're being 
filmed from any angle throughout the chat! I could do with one of those 
for recording experiments in my lab."

"Amazing." said Jack dryly. "I'll have one installed in the guest bedroom 
for voyeurs."

They eventually settled on the sun lounge at the rear of the house for 
the recording, and after finishing their drinks, Jonas began with the 
introductions to camera and set the scene. He'd already warned them that 
some of the questions would be tough, but they'd faced worse both as 
traders and during Jack's time as Guild President, and were not 
concerned.

"How did you become Guild President? After all, JS Trading is one of the 
youngest companies in the Guild." asked Jonas.

"I was a compromise candidate." Jack explained. "There are so many 
distinguished families whose membership goes back generations that 
sometimes they act like rival groups of royalty contesting the throne. 
Five years ago the power blocs couldn't agree, so - enter the youngster 
who couldn't do much damage. I know for a fact that they didn't realise 
that Sam and I were coming with an agenda."

"What agenda was that?"

Jack looked towards Sam and she took up the challenge. "Well, throughout 
Guild history, there's always been the Goa'uld empire. Some traders fell 
foul of them and were eliminated from time to time, but most just co-
existed and chose to ignore the excesses of subjugation and slavery. The 
Guild was essentially a society for advancement of its members and a 
means of keeping the rewards of trading in its own hands. It was more 
than that, of course, and there are many ethical and paternalistic 
companies out there. But the Guild had never taken any official stand on 
issues like the freedom of peoples and economic exploitation. With the 
war against the Goa'uld going well, we decided to try to use the 
situation to our advantage."

"How did you go about getting the changes in place?"

"We were sneaky, of course!" replied Jack. "We kind of let several trader 
families think that the ideas were coming from their rivals. You know, 
buy themselves a page in the history books for reasons other than profit. 
Quite a few actually wanted to move in that direction for good reasons as 
well as self-gratification, so within two years we had The Trading 
Charter being talked about across the Gated worlds, and implemented as 
Guild policy last year."

"Yes, you certainly lobbied Kelownan Universal about it for a long time." 
said Jonas. "What does it mean to you personally?"

"No more standing by or participating in trading activities that sustain 
slavery, economic or otherwise." said Sam, the light in her eyes 
revealing her inner passion for the subject. "Regulated trade through the 
Stargates is a powerful means of influencing those things."

"Try to stop people carrying on screwing up their worlds with 
technologies that shouldn't be there, or should be controlled better. 
Sure, we're probably nothing more than a pin-prick on the face of time, 
but it's a start." said Jack. "If you want to know how I think about 
that, I want to be able to go to a world - any world - and fish."

"Fish?" came Jonas' astonished response. Astonished for the camera's 
benefit, of course. As a seasoned journalist he was just loving the 
colour of the interview, and the way Jack and Sam's personalities were 
going to make the broadcast of this normally dry subject so much more 
watchable.

"Yup." Jack responded. "Can't do that if the water's polluted or the fish 
stocks are dying or exhausted. I can name a whole string of planets where 
that's already gone down." Jonas knew that both Earth and Kelowna were 
somewhere near the top of this list.

"Do you think the regulations will stick over time?"

"They've got to." replied Sam. "Most of the planets where the Stargates 
have been in use for generations are actually the ones going along with 
the new standards. They're glad to be rid of the Goa'uld and can see the 
benefits. The loudest opposition is coming from worlds like Earth, for 
example, to whom the Gates are still a novelty. They just see them as a 
means of expanding their influence or importing resources that are 
lacking on their own world. They don't want to acknowledge restrictions 
or rules that they don't have control over."

They talked for another twenty minutes on Guild activities, revealing 
both Jack and Sam's stated lack of interest in entering politics. But it 
was clear that both would be involved with the Guild, and thus not really 
outside politics, for the rest of their lives.

                         *******************

After a break for more drinks - Jonas was trying to work out whether the 
local fruit juice was not just a little bit more alcoholic than he 
suspected - they resumed the recording.

"It's clear that isolating several Goa'uld home planets tipped the scales 
in the war against them." stated Jonas. "How did you think of it?" Jack 
motioned in Sam's direction, hoping to avoid the technospeak himself.

She shook her head and laughed. "Oh no, Jack! That was your idea 
originally. I just adapted the Asgard technology. You said 'We just need 
to run quicker than them, that's all.' It was when we were escaping from 
Huygens 4B with the kids." She turned back to face Jonas. "He couldn't 
sleep when we got home, and he sure as hell was stopping me from dozing 
off. So I got up and made us some tea, and as we sat up in bed drinking 
it, he just came out with 'Frozen Replicators!' He then said we should 
ask the Asgard for a time-dilation device and I took it up from there. 
Thor was amenable and I modified the design for a gradual switch-on 
instead of instantaneous effect and managed to miniaturise the design so 
it could be easily hidden."

"Yeah, like that was a straightforward job for your everyday time-
dilation engineer!" Jack interjected. "Even the Asgard had never done 
that."

"No, Jack." she retorted. "The clever person is the one who starts with a 
blank sheet of paper. Adapting and developing stuff is relatively easy. 
You just have to keep your eyes and ears open."

"Humph!" snorted Jack. "This from the woman who started DU Industries and 
has patent rights on dozens of gizmos on sale throughout the universe. 
Including that holocam over there, I might add!"

The said camera caught Jonas' open-mouthed surprise so well. "Er, DU 
Industries? You own the company?"

"Yup. 'Doohickies Unlimited' it was originally." said Jack. "Sam's 
present to me on my sixty-fifth birthday. Our son Danil is now the chief 
executive and pretty much runs it by himself. I hate to say it, but he's 
even more of a geek than his mother."

Sam smiled - she was used to this. She continued "But to get back to the 
point, you already know how we concealed the devices and got the Goa'uld 
to take them back to their planets. But what we didn't fully appreciate 
at the time was that we had closed the doors, so to speak, but didn't 
have a key to open them again. It wasn't until Daniel Jackson got himself 
marooned that we had to think of a way of getting him off again. And that 
took us sixteen years in our time - fifteen to develop the means, and one 
to get him off, all the while he only aged fourteen hours."

"So how did you do it?"

"We had anticipated that the planets' Stargates would cease functioning, 
and that ships' computers would be in trouble crossing the time-gradient. 
Our first attempts to have a rescue craft gliding under manual control 
through the time barrier in the atmosphere came to nothing." explained 
Sam. "We watched from geostationary orbit in one of our freighters and as 
soon as the pilotless test-craft became submerged in the time-change 
boundary, it was already going slowly and just froze where it was from 
our viewpoint. It was clear that we might get it to work eventually, but 
our great great grandchildren would be the ones to greet Daniel. Then we 
took up another of Jack's ideas and went fishing instead." Her eyes 
sparkled mischievously as she said it.

"Fishing?"

"Well, kind of." said Jack. "I'd read somewhere about the idea of running 
a cable from geostationary orbit down to the surface of a planet, to form 
the basis of an elevator system into space. Sam, you explain, please."

"Possible in theory, but no-one's ever had the materials available to 
try. We needed a cable forty thousand kilometres long from stretch from 
orbit to the surface. We thought we could shoot a rescue cage straight 
down so that when it crossed the time-change barrier, it wouldn't take 
forever. But the only material known to be light yet strong enough to 
support its own weight and the stresses we would be putting on it was 
Fullerite."

Jonas nodded knowingly but asked, "Please would you explain that for the 
benefit of the viewers?"

"It's a form of carbon fibre with a special molecular pattern that gives 
it such strength. It was originally called Buckminster Fullerene, after 
its inventor. We knew about the properties, but it's still a pretty rare 
material and we needed enormous quantities. It does occur in nature, but 
almost exclusively in the corona of red dwarf stars. We firstly had to 
design a means of recovering it from there."

"So that was the end of that idea, then?"

"Oh no." said Sam. "We captured some Goa'uld ring transporter devices and 
adapted them to repeatedly dip into the stars' atmospheres from orbiting 
ships for rapid extraction of the elements. Gradually we captured enough. 
We converted a derelict space station into a factory for refining the 
material and spinning the fibre - it's still there today, in orbit around 
Barnard's Star, producing ninety-seven percent of the spun Fullerite in 
the known universe. Eventually we had enough, but it had taken over eight 
years before we started lowering the cable into the atmosphere. 
Fortunately by this time Daniel had managed to land his Tel'tak on the 
surface of the planet. We could watch it all from orbit, like freeze-
frame actions, over the years we were working to get him off."

"So that was how you got them off the planet, then?"

"Unfortunately not." replied Jack. "Even though we'd developed a control 
system for our freighter to hold it absolutely still in orbit over the 
site of Daniel's crashed ship, we hadn't allowed for the effects of solar 
wind on the cable itself. The slightest movements in the cable above the 
time-change barrier caused the cable below the barrier to move at 
supersonic speeds in a kind of whiplash effect. The furthest we got was 
two kilometres below it before we lost that cable as well. They all broke 
apart near the barrier. That was when we decided that this was never 
going to work under these circumstances."

"So, what happened next?"

"We were stumped, quite frankly." said Sam. "Jack was actually 
contemplating leaving all of us to take the glider option to the surface 
by himself when our son Danil came up with the beginnings of what 
eventually turned out to be the solution."

"And that was?"

"The Quantum Traverse Effect." said Sam. "From the age of eight, he's 
been engrossed in the physics of atoms and molecules. He got the idea 
from seeing how electrons in orbit round the nucleus of an atom could 
jump from one orbital to another in zero time and back again. He thought 
that if he could engineer a field big enough to contain a small ship, 
then it should be possible to travel instantaneously from one place to 
another in 3D space-time. It took us seven years to build the ship that 
made the trip last year. I will admit though, that we splattered some of 
the prototypes across the universe before we got it right. Our other son 
Jacomb is the skilled pilot of the family, and was the only person to 
trust Danil's calculations enough to even want to test-fly it."

"Last year? I thought that they returned only ten or eleven days ago!" 
exclaimed Jonas.

"They did." said Jack. "But even though they descended from orbit to the 
surface instantly, once they got out of the ship it took them nearly an 
hour in their time to convince Daniel and his three companions to get on 
board. That's been about a year in universe time and again we were able 
to watch it all in slow-mo from orbit. Teal'c volunteered to go because 
if it came to it, he was going to subdue Daniel's protests and carry him 
on board. Jacomb piloted the craft, Danil was the flight engineer and our 
foreman Ari was there to convince Daniel's followers to come back too."

"Why Ari? I can see the reasons for the others to be there." said Jonas.

"Because in addition to being our right-hand man and the new CEO of JS 
Trading" said Jack, "he is also the High Priest of the Avorian brethren. 
You know, the religious group whose stolen icon caused all the fuss in 
the first place. His full name is Evenerari. He worked on the scheme to 
dupe the Goa'uld with us right from the start and had someone slip his 
signed note asking for help to an Earth SG team. That's how we snared 
Daniel into the scheme in the first place. We knew Daniel's helpers would 
recognise him and hopefully not put up resistance to leaving the planet. 
Seems it worked. We made sure his wife Karinne and their kids were looked 
after in his absence."

Jonas was mentally dancing for joy. 'Is this a scoop, or is this a 
scoop?' he kept thinking. He tried to calm himself for more probing 
questions about the new Quantum technology, but was interrupted by the 
call tone of a small videphone on the table beside Sam.

She looked up at Jonas and said in a serious voice, "Cut the recording, 
Jonas. Now."

"Camera off!" called Jonas, and it obeyed.

"Accept call." said Sam and the miniature screen came to life to reveal 
Ari's features.

His message was terse. "SJ Trading." was all he said.

"Thanks, Ari." said Sam. "Phone off." The screen went blank again.

"What was that?" enquired Jonas.

"Coded alert." replied Jack. "It means someone from Earth is sniffing 
around at the spaceport where our freighters are, asking about us. We 
registered the company as SJ Trading on Earth, but it's JS Trading 
everywhere else. They're going after us."

"Why?" asked Jonas.

"We're the enemy now, because of the trade regulations." said Sam 
quietly. "You might not want to be too close to us for the next few days, 
Jonas. Just in case."

                         *******************

Chapter 4 - Kismet

Jonas had personally chaired the final editorial meeting before the 
night's telecast. "Roll the final cut of Daniel Jackson's interview." he 
commanded. After a few seconds Daniel's bespectacled face filled the 
screen. The editorial staff knew to listen intently and watch for any 
gaffes that might not have been noticed before - they held the unenviable 
record for the number of contributions to the hit show 'Intergalactic 
Bloopers'.

"We had no clue what we were heading into." Daniel was saying. "The 
Tel'tak suddenly lurched violently and the autopilot and nav systems just 
cut out. Fortunately my 2IC Farquharson was up to the job and managed to 
ease it out of a full crash trajectory, but we came down pretty hard 
nonetheless. It was two hours before we managed to get everyone out of 
the wreck."

"Were you near to where you had intended to land in the first place?" 
came an off-screen voice.

"No, we were lost. One person had a broken arm, which we splinted, but 
everyone could walk. We decided to head in the general direction of the 
Stargate but it was an unknown distance. We reckoned if we could stay out 
of trouble we would eventually make it back."

"And had you given up the idea of retrieving the icon by this time?"

"Yes, unfortunately. The brethren were for continuing the expedition but 
I knew that we had little chance once our crashed ship was discovered, if 
our descent hadn't been reported already. We walked for most of the day 
before dusk fell and we set up camp near a forest."

"When did you first become aware of a rescue attempt being made from 
orbit?"

"That evening for certain. During the day we'd heard some strange, very 
loud noises up in the air. A bit like distant gunshots, you know, but 
coming from way overhead. We looked up several times but never saw 
anything.  It was only after we learned of the failed attempts to lower a 
carbon fibre cable down to us from orbit that I realised these sounds 
must have been those cables breaking up. But it was during the evening 
that we experienced a very, very loud double bang nearby - rather like a 
thunderstorm that's too close for comfort, or a supersonic aircraft at 
low level. It turned out to be the arrival of our rescue craft about five 
hundred metres from our position. We started to run but stopped when we 
heard Teal'c's voice on a loudspeaker calling my name."

"And were you pleased to see him?"

"Not initially, I will admit. The last time I'd seen him was when we'd 
witnessed the icon being sold to the Goa'uld on Haven Minor. Neither he 
nor Jen Hailey followed me when I left there to start my campaign to 
protest against these sales to the Goa'uld. I had no idea that Sam and 
Jack were playing a double game at that time, and I admit that I was 
livid with them all. In fact the scale of their activities still astounds 
me.

The strangest thing was the appearance of the people accompanying Teal'c. 
Ari looked a lot older than when I'd seen him on Haven Minor, and one of 
the other two looked quite like Jack when I'd first met him. It was a 
shock when he introduced himself and his brother as their grown-up 
children. We just couldn't believe it. They started to explain about our 
being caught in a time-dilation field on the planet, but I still thought 
this was some sort of trick. In fact, it was my companions - three 
members of the Avorian brethren, who'd recognised Ari as their High 
Priest. They convinced me that we should go with them, especially when 
Teal'c explained that another year had gone by up there just since they'd 
arrived."

"Were you still resentful towards the O'Neill's at this stage?"

"If I'm honest, yes. They hadn't seen fit to trust me in the first place. 
I was manipulated by my closest friends. It took time to understand just 
what role Ari had played in all this too, since he'd done the same thing 
to his own sect. And later I began to realise the consequences of having 
a sixteen-year chunk taken out of my life. I...... I know that they've 
pulled off a spectacular victory against the Goa'uld. I just don't know 
how I feel about it all at the moment."

"What happened when you got up into orbit, back into *normal* time?"

"When we left the rescue ship in the freighter's cargo bay, I was 
completely taken aback by the appearance of Sam and Jack. I do admit that 
thoughts of punching Jack on the nose weren't far from the front of my 
mind. The first thing they did, of course, was to embrace their sons, 
who'd been gone a year since the start of the trip down to the surface. 
But when they looked at me, I couldn't speak. The last time I'd seen Sam 
she was more or less my own age, but now she was like an elderly 
stranger. And Jack looked like my great-grandfather when I was young. We 
didn't say much - I didn't know where to begin. But seeing Jen Hailey now 
my own age had completely the opposite effect. In fact she was the one 
who talked me through those first few hours."

"Do you feel any different now, since you've had some time to digest 
what's happened to you, and perhaps seeing the way the war is being won? 
And also their public apology to you at the Guild dinner?"

"Yes..... No...... I really don't know, if I'm honest. Jen wants me to 
get over it quickly. I really can't believe that she waited sixteen years 
to see me again. I hope she won't be disappointed in the outcome. And I'm 
not unappreciative of the fact that Jack and Sam have spent those sixteen 
years and a fortune in getting me back, and that their kids risked their 
lives on the trip. Even if they have all profited from the technology 
they developed to do it."

                         *******************

"OK, let's wrap that one." said Jonas. We'll show that after the O'Neill 
interview, followed by the one of Jen Hailey." He turned to the junior 
reporter. "How much did you get from Teal'c?"

The reporter shuffled nervously. "Er, well boss, it's er, how can I 
say..... Short but full of character!"

"Roll it." said Jonas. The screen came to life again with a shot tracking 
out from a close-up of Teal'c's tattoo to take in his whole head and 
shoulders.

"So, Mr. Teal'c," the reporter stumbled, "are you pleased with the 
outcome of events?"

"Indeed."

"Has this been as big an event in the Goa'uld war as people say it is?"

"Indeed."

"Do you think Dr. Jackson fully trusts you all again?"

"Indeed."

"Will you be returning to Chulak after this?"

"Indeed."

There followed an embarrassing silence in which it was obvious the 
reporter was losing an inner struggle.

"Ask me about the honourable intentions of the O'Neill's." smiled Teal'c.

"OK, er, do you think that the O'Neill's acted honourably throughout this 
whole venture?"

"Indeed."

                         *******************

Amidst the general laughter in the editing room, the last minute panic of 
settling the running order began to be thrashed out.

"If we show the whole set of interviews, something's got to go from this 
evening's schedule." insisted the editor. "We gotta keep the piece about 
the Earth threats to ignore the Trader's new policy up front."

"No, cut it. We'll know what happens soon enough." replied Jonas.

"What about the massive Black Hole appearing in the centre of the 
Sombrero Hat Galaxy?" the editor came back.

"They'll either survive or they won't." replied Jonas. "Cut it!"

"Massive radiation leak on Titus Three?"

"You can't film radiation. Not photogenic enough."

"Playoffs in the Intergalactic Zero-Gravity Snooker Cup?"

"Cut it down to the scores on the ticker."

"Lost dog keeps dialling Stargates in hope of finding its master?"

"That's human interest! Keep that one in." Jonas sighed and stood up. 
"OK, boys and girls. Let's show 'em all the way!"

                         *******************

Daniel and Jen lay back against the pillows in the sumptuous bedroom in 
Sam and Jack's garden guest lodge. Her head rested on his shoulder, his 
arm around her. They stayed silent until she commanded "Screen off!" and 
the glow in the far corner died away. They had just watched the repeats 
of the Kelownan TV interviews made the day before. Last night they had 
been too busy with each other - in Jen's case making up for what she had 
called 'sixteen years of lost time' to watch the first-time broadcasts.

"Well, what did you think?" asked Daniel.

"I hope the dog finds its owner." she sighed. "Daniel, just get over it, 
and marry me."

"What?"

"We can go to the priests here on Mythor and see if we're compatible 
enough for im'ri bonding, if you like. Sam and Jack have offered to host 
the reception, but it won't happen if you've still got a stick up your 
ass."

"Are you serious, Jen?"

"Sixteen years serious, Daniel. Get over it, marry me, or break my heart 
again. Choice is yours."

He never stood a chance, did he?

                         *******************

In the 21st century, KUTV, as the Earth subsidiary of Jonas' company was 
known, had a massive following not only because it showed great news 
coverage of events throughout the whole Gated universe. Its constant 
ability to have the best-looking presenters who didn't seem to mind 
showing exposed pectorals or ample curves that no other station dared 
match and stay in business was also a considerable factor. Its TV 
broadcasts and 3D moving picture news-sheets set the pace which other 
news or entertainment companies tried to match. Nonetheless, historians 
in subsequent centuries were able to piece together from its archives a 
reasonably accurate record of the events that led to the Earth's 
remarkable transformation. The following items form the start of the 
history gallery at the Pan-Terran library:

24 April 2031: Earth declares opposition to Trader's Guild restrictions 
on Gate trade.

15 May 2031: Ex-Guild president and wife survive missile attack on 
freighter: miraculous escape in new Quantum Traverse pod. Earth 
government denies backing "terrorists".

27 September 2031: Earth sends troops to secure Stargates on supply 
worlds. Traders Guild excluded from future dealings on Earth Economic 
Area planets.

14 March 2032: Daniel and Jenny Jackson present rare Denebian burial vase 
to Smithsonian Museum.

12 April 2032: Government admits Earth Stargate no longer functioning: 
thousands of troops stranded off-world.

26 June 2032: Alarm at high number of arriving spaceships making crash-
landings.

<end>