Under the Silent Stars - Chapter 8
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7
Under the Silent Stars - Chapter 8
Groom Lake, Nevada, February 2003
Sam gave the ground tech the thumbs up after he slapped the top of her helmet, and watched him do the same with Cam in the first seat before backing off and pulling the gantry away. Cam made a few checks and called out several systems which she also signed off on before flicking a switch to slide the canopy closed over them. After getting a thumbs up from the ground staff he began to roll the X-302 out of the hangar and into the crisp desert morning. Cam lifted his facemask up over his mouth.
"Tower, this is Ghost Rider, checks complete, over." he said as he brought the fighter to a temporary stop, just outside the hangar doors as they closed. It was a formality as they only ever used the one runway, but a formality which was always observed.
"Roger that, Ghost Rider, proceed to runway two-niner for cleared take-off. Show her what her baby can really do." Sam smiled softly at the reply from the tower. She'd taken the 302 up herself a few times, but she was also feeling a little excited by the prospect of seeing how Cam flew her 'baby'.
"Copy that, Tower," Cam chuckled himself as he taxied on to the runway and performed some final checks, "ready for take-off." He glanced over his shoulder at her and winked.
"Confirmed, Ghost Rider, you have a go." As soon as the radio chirped the confirmation Cam was pushing the throttle smoothly up to maximum.
"That's what I'm talking about. Let's do this, Sam." Pulling back on the yoke, he already had the prototype aircraft buzzing through the Nevada desert at over Mach 1.5 before she had a chance to glance down at the instrument board in front of her. She had felt the acceleration through the inertial dampeners, Cam wasn't messing around. He banked left, heading for the rocky hills in the distance. A little warning light lit up on her display and she looked down to see outgoing comms were off.
"Cam? Why'd you kill the radio?" Her confusion only increased when he laughed out loud and reached under his board. The low strains of an electric guitar started up over the speakers and she blinked in surprise.
"Ain't a joyride without some driving tunes played far too loud, Sam!" As the drums came in she started to recognise the song as something he'd played for her before. She had to admit Cam's taste in guitar rock was pretty good. Then he started singing along and she laughed.
"Oh God, Cam? Really?" He just glanced over his shoulder and grinned at her, while doing Mach 2 in a dive towards the desert scrub. They arrived in the rocky foothills just as the tempo of the song increased and Cam pulled level at one hundred feet. He proceeded to juke left and right following the course of the valley between two ridges, dropping lower as he went, until he got to the first chorus at which point he flipped the 302 upside down and brought it down to fly over the stream, with the water rushing past overhead only ten feet away.
"IF I GO CRAZY, THEN WILL YOU STILL CALL ME SUPERMAN?" He sang at the top of his lungs and Sam was gripping the console in front of her thinking that he quite possibly had gone crazy. She looked up and saw her broken reflection in the water. "Something I learned watching TV in Japan!" He laughed and she felt the bump of the manoeuvring thrusters pushing the 302 a little further from the water before pulling out in an inverted negative gee climb and over one side of the ridge in a roll which had the tops of jagged boulders flying past the canopy over her head. She'd never rated the reaction control thrusters for use in an atmosphere!
"Cam, you just used the RCS!" her fingers flew over the console ahead of her as she brought up data logs and quickly skimmed the telemetry, her eyes widening in amazement.
"Course I did, darlin', have been this whole time." He continued singing the second verse, doing an Immelman turn which caused her board to light up showing the lower fore and upper aft thrusters firing, pitching the craft far more steeply than she'd ever thought possible when writing the design specs. He again turned into a dive and brought the 302 to nap of the earth flight, rolling it up onto a wing so she could see the ground rush by just past the tip of the wing as he pulled back on the yoke and took them in a long banking turn, she watched the massive dust stream pulled up by their passage, trailing off behind them in a funnel shaped vortex. She checked the air speed indicator with a glance because she could tell they were still accelerating and, incredibly, felt him kick in the ramjets while he was rolling over to fly inverted once more. Mach 3 at twenty feet above the ground, while flying upside down, all the while singing his head off. He kicked the nose down, sending the 302 into another negative gee climb, this time to the thumping of the ramjet behind her seat. She grinned despite herself. The song had started over again and this time she joined in. She sang in her mezzo while his baritone accompanied her, trading off parts of the chorus until both of them sang the last line.
"If I go crazy..." he began.
"Then I'll still call you Superman!" she finished.
"If I'm alive and well..." he continued.
"I'll be there, holding your hand!" she replied.
"I'll keep you by my side with my super-human might... Kryptonite!" They sang together, both smiling as the guitars and drums seemed to match the pace of the engines.
He was in a steep climb now, the ramjets powering them up past Mach 6 almost vertically into the high atmosphere before he switched over to the sublight thrusters just when the air started getting too thin. The sky darkening from bright blue into navy into black, the stars flickering on one by one. It took her by surprise how well he'd timed it. The song tapered off, the distorted hum of the last chord falling silent just as they reached low orbit, leaving her staring into the depths of space at the stillness of the starlight, broken only several minutes later by Cam's soft voice. His words caused something inside her chest to snap into place, filling her with a rush of feeling which nearly overwhelmed her.
"Look, Sam, we're astronauts." She'd been in space so many times already, but it wasn't until he said it, as she looked at the stars with him, that she truly believed it, deep in the depths of her soul.
Lucian Alliance Outpost, July 2010
Cam looked at the pyramid through his binoculars and had members of his assault teams paint the static gun emplacements with laser targets. Behind him, Teal'c was already assembling fireteams for specific roles. Daniel was looking through another set of binoculars at the pyramid, trying to figure out if he could ascertain anything about its possible layout from markings. Vala was tying her hair up in a ponytail to get it out of the way before checking her and Daniel's grenades.
"Sam, the Lucian Alliance has a lot of people in this place. We're gonna need those 302s to waste these turrets before we move out of cover." he said into his comm. "I'm counting eight gun emplacements around this entrance, two of them AA, which are painted. They are loaded for bear."
"Copy that, Cam. 302s are on their way, ETA from orbit is thirty seconds, three zero." Her voice just reminded him that she wasn't here. She was still watching his six, he just wished it wasn't from so far away. He hunkered down for the wait.
"You know I'd feel better with you here with us, Sam. Vala is handy with a gun, but it's still fifty-fifty that she'll stop shooting if she spots something shiny." He chuckled as Vala slapped his arm.
"I wish I were down there too, Cam. I've got your back though, I've got all of your backs, keep in touch." she signed off and he glared at Daniel until the man looked at him, then raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"There are some inscriptions by the entrance, they mention Ra, this may have been one of his planets." Daniel returned his binoculars to one of the pockets of his tac vest. "I don't think this pyramid will be similar to the one on Abydos however, it's smaller, much smaller."
"That's fine, Jackson, it was a long shot anyway." He looked between his two teammates. "You both good to go?" They nodded and he raised his Heckler & Koch G36K, checking the C-Mag drum again. "Teal'c, we are going as soon as the 302s get here. We all set?"
"Indeed, Colonel Mitchell. All teams are ready." The Jaffa came to crouch beside his teammates, looping the sling on his M60E3 over his head. As if in response to Teal'c's words, they all looked up at the keening sound of incoming fighters and the scream of air-to-ground missiles closing in.
"Laser teams, switch to the static guns as soon as the AA goes up! All teams move on my mark!" Cam barked his orders, while the distant figures of Lucian Alliance mercenaries ran around the compound, firing the odd burst of light weapons fire into the sky at fighters too distant to hit. The AA guns went up in a pair of fireballs which lit up the darkening sky and then more fighters screamed in, targeting the anti-personnel emplacements with missiles and rail gun fire. "Move! Move! Move!" Forty men and women of the USAF and USMC descended upon the pyramid and out buildings surrounding the complex, firing on the run and taking cover behind the walls and structures in their path. They worked their way deeper into the complex, encountering heavy resistance at every step. F302s rained down fire against the static gun emplacements until one by one they were silenced, then began laying down suppressing fire on the largest concentrations of Alliance mercenaries.
Fighting their way to the entrance, Cam and his team flanked the dark passageway into the large structure and he took a flashbang from his belt. Daniel on the other side of the entrance did the same and they staggered their release for a one-two punch as they threw the incendiaries inside, rushing in after they exploded. Finding a few disoriented stragglers at the end of the short corridor inside the main pyramid they quickly knocked them out with their weapons and took up positions behind cover while laying down suppressing fire. Two other teams had followed them inside and were taking turns covering their movements through the galleries filled with low walls and thick stone columns. They reached a central room and saw the Stargate, shimmering with an active wormhole as men streamed into it. Cam opened up on them with his G36 which caused them to turn his way and find cover. The two sides exchanged fire for several moments, Teal'c raking the opposite end of the room with his M60 several times as the Alliance soldiers struggled to fire back at him. However the whole structure was beginning to shake, causing dust and loosened blocks of stone to begin falling from above them. Cam didn't like it, remembering the last time a planet with a naquadria core had been used to dial Destiny. As if in answer to his ruminations his comm chirped with Sam's strained voice.
"SG teams, abort! I repeat, abort! The planet's core is about to go critical. Get out of shielded areas right now!" Cam cursed and waved his hand over his head in a signal to all the teams in sight. He pressed the button on his comm.
"You all heard the lady! Fall back to the extraction point on the double! Move! Move! Move! SG-1 will provide cover for teams inside, 302s will cover teams outside." He rose from behind cover and opened up on the opposing forces, with Teal'c and Vala joining in. Daniel threw a smoke grenade over into the midst of the mercenaries and opened up himself. As Cam crouched down and saw all the teams on their way out he signalled his team to follow suit before yelling from behind the wall he crouched behind. "Lucian Alliance personnel! We are leaving! This planet is about to explode! I suggest you lay down your weapons and follow us. We will beam you up if we can!" He received a hail of bullets in response and rolled his eyes, running towards the exit while Teal'c covered him from the doorway. They quickly made their way back out of the pyramid and down the long ramp where he could see a few teams already being beamed up while others provided overwatch support. He pressed his comm stud to speak with the ship in orbit. "Hammond, this is Mitchell. Wait until the last moment to beam me, and gather up any Lucian Alliance personnel I tag." He received a wary 'affirmative' from Sam as he reached for the pack on Vala's back and dug into it for the locator tag patches he had been hoping to use on any prisoners. As he ripped the bag open containing them he spun around when he saw all the SG personnel around him raise their rifles as one and aim at the door.
He saw them come from the pyramid in groups of three and four, most were already unarmed, those that weren't quickly dropped their weapons at the sight greeting them outside. The landscape heaved under their feet, fissures opened up in the ground in the near distance. A jet of streaming molten rock erupted from the other side of the pyramid from somewhere inside the ravine the pyramid was perched on, even as the edges of the cliff subsided and fell into the widening chasm. As each small group passed him he slapped a patch on one of them and told them to hold onto each other, and watched as they vanished. Within thirty seconds they'd seen fifty or so Lucian Alliance mercenaries come from the temple, with a few more making their way down the ramp. Only SG-1 was left on the ground from the SG teams and the entire landscape was turning hellish. They were running out of time. A woman was running down the ramp as fast as she could, she was dressed like one of their scientists, he threw away the bag of locators and stretched his arm out as far as he could, beckoning her onwards, just as Sam's voice came over the comm to him.
"We are out of time, Cam, sorry!" With that he saw the white flash of the Asgard beam enveloping him as the woman leapt at him, leaving him tumbling to the floor of the cargo bay of the Tau'ri battlecruiser, with a flushed and winded woman clutching at him as he felt the ship transition into hyperspace.
"You okay?" he asked softly and she nodded and slowly rolled off from on top of him as she stared down the barrels of his team's guns. He stood up and backed away from the Lucian Alliance mercenaries and scientists eyeing him warily, enclosed on three sides by forcefield projectors and on the fourth by a wall of armed soldiers.
"You're all safe." He told them as he backed up far enough for the forcefield to flash into existence in front of him. "I'm sorry we couldn't save more of you. Any of you who are injured will receive treatment." He turned away and walked out the door. They didn't want any more of his sympathy and he had none more to give. It was time for him to find out how much he'd lost. Each team leader found him in the corridor, recounting their actions and listing their losses, six in total. He nodded to each and dismissed them, allowing them to rejoin their teams in the infirmary, which is where he signalled his friends to head off to when Sam came around the corner to find him. He fell into step alongside her and briefed her on the assault while she briefed him on what had happened in orbit. They walked together into the elevator and waited until the doors closed before embracing each other tightly and kissing. She sighed and pushed her head into his neck, grabbing the back of his desert camouflage BDU jacket.
"We couldn't get a beam lock on the last two pilots, Cam." She leant heavily against him and he stroked her hair. "They'd both taken hits and there was too much interference being caused by the damaged systems." His lips drew down into a thin line as he nodded in understanding, not needing to say anything. She already knew he understood. And he knew she understood as well, when he rested his forehead against her shoulder and closed his eyes while she rubbed the small of his back. He opened them again only when the elevator deposited them on the short corridor leading to the bridge, and the waiting subspace communication with General O'Neill at Homeworld Command.
USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 674 days relative
Cam sighed as he saw Vala come around the corridor ahead of him on her skates, grinning at him. He slowed down his pace then stopped and pushed against the wall, stretching his legs and back while cooling down. He could tell she wasn't going to leave him alone until she said what she wanted to say. She skated around him in a small semi-circle and made a little pirouette before coming to a stop with her back against the wall next to him.
"Fancy meeting you here, Cameron, running... in the corridors... in the morning." She gave him her best fake-innocent smile and he chuckled in spite of himself.
"Yeah, fancy that, Vala." He lifted his fingers to his neck and checked his watch while she looked on impassively, waiting for him to drop his hands again to his side.
"I won't keep you long, I know how you like to run past the Core room in the mornings," she grinned evilly at him and he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her, "I just want to say I think you should tell her. Sooner rather than later." He frowned and opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off with a raised hand. "Just forget about the frat regs and tell her. We're stuck here, Cameron, and it's been nearly two years, and you are running far too much." She leaned her head back against the bulkhead and the look she gave him was filled with sadness and concern. "You both deserve to be happy." He looked away and closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out before speaking.
"I appreciate what you're saying, Vala," he looked into her eyes as she was about to interrupt, "I really do," she remained silent, "but it's not that simple." She gave him a withering glance before placing her hands on both his shoulders.
"I think it is just that simple, Cameron." She patted his cheek and started skating away. "The problem with you Tau'ri males is you think too much." she called out over her shoulder. "Interesting, if limited, gene pool!" He glared at her barb as she disappeared around a corner. Shaking his head, he turned and began jogging in the direction of the Core room once more.
Selenis, Luna, August 2010
Sam shook her head and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she watched the video feed on the holographic display in front of her. Cam twirled the control crystal between his fingers as he lay prone on the ground outside the Auxiliary Control room. Where the Hell did he learn to do that? She remembered Teal'c telling her that he'd swiped a control crystal from Volnek in the middle of a fight a few years ago. She wondered exactly what he got up to as he grew up in Kansas. Surely he didn't learn that at the Academy.
"Samantha? Daniel and I are heading for Command. The idiot wants to help." Vala muttered in frustration over the radio. Sam smiled as Daniel told her to shut it.
"Of course, Vala, see you soon." She turned back to the console.
"~I have identified your assailant, Colonel Mitchell.~" Selenis brought up a personnel file for Sam to look at over an ancillary console. "~He is a mechanical systems technician who worked on my construction. His name is Saronus.~"
"~He doesn't move like a mechanical systems technician, Selenis, he moves like a commando.~" Cameron said while getting up onto one knee and slipping the control crystal into his jacket. "Teal'c, look for this guy to be on his way to you. He's fast, strong and smart."
"Understood, Colonel Mitchell. We are prepared." declared the Jaffa. Sam went to a second console and queued it up for video surveillance and was going to have Selenis lock it on to Saronus, except the Alteran wasn't anywhere on the facility's sensors.
"~Selenis...~" she started in a concerned tone.
"~I have noticed it also, Dr. Carter.~" replied the AI as Sam worked over the console trying to review previous footage.
"~Noticed what? Sam? Where's Saronus?~" Cam asked as he got up and collected his weapons. He began jogging back towards a transporter and the camera switched to one further up the corridor.
"~Saronus has disappeared, Cameron. He's nowhere on sensors.~" Sam replied.
"~It is likely he is using the access tunnels and shafts built into my structure, most of them are not covered by the sensor network.~" Selenis posited and Cam cursed. "~Colonel, the Chair Room has an access tunnel entrance inside.~" More curses greeted her over the radio and Sam smiled grimly. Cam reached the transporter and keyed in the one closest to the Chair Room.
"I should have asked for a life signs detector." he muttered. "Wait for me, T-man. Almost there." Cam was running down the corridor, but a flash from her console alerted her to what was happening first.
"Cam, Teal'c, he's sealing the Chair Room from somewhere!" Teal'c and most of the Marines were waiting for Cameron outside the room, one unlucky man stood just inside the doorway as the door slid shut behind him while he faced the interior of the room with his weapon raised.
"Corporal Danning!" cried Teal'c banging on the door as the camera following Cam switched to the one outside the chair room. "What is happening?" Saronus' name popped up on the sensor list again and Sam quickly had the second monitor tracking him. He was inside the Chair Room and already moving in on Danning, who was firing at the man with his P90 and not hitting anything. A flash of the hand had something flying from Saronus' grip and slamming into the side of Danning's helmet, stunning him long enough for Saronus to close the distance and elbow him in the back of the neck, taking him down with a single blow. Sam was amazed at the precision and brutality. Life signs on Danning were still strong, small mercies.
"~Saronus!~" Cam yelled from behind the closed door. He reached into his jacket and produced the control crystal, pressing it to the clear glass for Saronus to see. The Alteran looked surprised and incensed, patting down his pockets he rounded on Cam who taunted him with a wicked smile. "~Looking for this?~" He slipped the crystal back into his jacket. "~How about we talk, huh? Get to know each other? We could still come to some mutual understanding. You know, like civilised people.~" Sam winced, perhaps that wasn't the wisest thing Cam could have said, but she could tell by his grin it was getting exactly the reaction he wanted. The saboteur spun around and headed straight for the door and away from Danning, who was crawling slowly to the other side of the room under his own power.
"~Do not speak my name! Do not use my language! You have no right, savage!~" The outburst was telling, Saronus was young by Alteran standards, and obviously highly volatile.
"~You could always learn English.~" Cam shrugged with a smile. Saronus grimaced, the corner of his mouth twinging further down for an instant.
"~I would not defile my tongue with your crude speech.~" He paced towards the door and stood before it. "~You will place the crystal on the ground and move away down the corridor.~" Cam scratched his chin for a moment.
"~Uh, no. I think I'm going to destroy it with the unstable vortex of the Stargate actually.~" With that he walked off and motioned for Teal'c to remain. The Jaffa did so, staring impassively at the bristling Alteran through the glass door. Saronus spun on his heel and headed straight for the back wall of the Chair Room.
"Colonel Mitchell, Saronus is leaving via the access tunnel." Teal'c said into his comm. "I suspect he intends to ambush you. Samantha Carter, I would be grateful for your assistance in opening these doors." Sam immediately set about rerouting command and control functions for the room to unlock it, and called medics to the Chair Room to help the stricken Marine. Not long after succeeding she spotted Cam striding in from the treblin side corridor, she pressed a few controls on the side of the console and a small tray slid out revealing a crystal which she lifted and flung over the balcony for him to catch without breaking stride. She was a little scared at how easily she was able to follow his crazy way of thinking now. Vala and Daniel entered the 'gate room from the hamman side corridor and Sam cursed. Vala was supporting the still wobbly archaeologist, this couldn't get any worse. Sure enough, Saronus appeared out of nowhere behind the pair and slammed an elbow into Daniel's kidney, then spun and kicked him clear of the startled Vala. Cam was raising his P90, but Saronus took the raven-haired thief by the throat and slipped in behind her, ripping her gun from her grasp and throwing it away.
"~Give me the crystal!~" yelled the saboteur while shaking Vala by the neck, his thumb and forefinger pressing on either side of her larynx. "~Give it to me or I will kill her.~" He held his free arm out, his fingers beckoning.
"~I'm not an idiot, Saronus. You won't kill her, if you did, I'd kill you, and I can't help but notice you've been very careful so far not to kill anyone. You've lost.~" Without taking his eyes off the man he was aiming at he flicked on the laser sight of his P90 and focused it right on Saronus' forehead. "~Sam, dial the 'gate to somewhere nasty.~" She checked over her memory of hellish planets and their 'gate addresses and dialled one up, swiftly lighting up the glyphs on Selenis' uniquely styled Stargate, before it finished the sequence Cam casually tossed the blank crystal she'd thrown to him earlier over his shoulder and the kawoosh hit it perfectly in mid-flight, obliterating it. Saronus cried out in fury and Vala was going slightly red in the face. "~Give it up, Saronus.~" The saboteur's features twisted into one of hatred and disgust.
"~I demand you leave this base at once, savage!~" he growled, inching forward as Cam signalled for the 'gate to be shut down and Sam obliged.
"~You have no authority here, Saronus.~" Everyone looked up in surprise at the AI's statement. Sam blinked as she saw the console next to her flicker on and the subspace communications console beyond it flash an acknowledgement. Her display began streaming realtime telemetry and she nearly shuddered visibly when realisation dawned on her. She quickly began inputting various searches while Selenis and Cam kept Saronus' attention down in the 'gateroom.
"~What do you mean, Selenis? I am Alteran, we built you!~" cried the man indignantly.
"~No you're not.~" said Cam with a dismissive tilt to his head. Saronus rounded on him perplexed. "~You're not Alteran, you're Indesta.~" the Indesta's eyes widened in surprise. "~You destroyed the legacy of the Alterans, you betrayed their trust and their hopes for their descendants. You don't get to call yourself Alteran.~"
"~Pathetic nonsense! Selenis, explain yourself! You must follow my commands.~" The saboteur glared at Cam while still inching forward, the corner of his eye twitching.
"~I am following the last order given to me by Ilemus before he departed for Terra.~" explained the AI. "~To wait in slumber until the next evolution comes to claim me. Colonel Mitchell is my rightful commander as the first human to set foot within this facility, Dr. Carter is his second as the next human to enter the base.~" Sam blinked in surprise, it seemed Teal'c didn't count, being a Jaffa, genetically altered human stock or not. Still, Selenis felt Cam was her commander? What did that mean?
"The IOA isn't going to like this, Cameron." she muttered from the balcony as a list of results began ordering itself on the screen.
"You're telling me?" Cam chuckled without glancing her way.
"~That is ludicrous! I demand- ~" The Indesta never got to finish his thought.
"~I will allow you to leave unharmed, Saronus.~" Selenis interrupted.
"Selenis? Sam?" called Cam in confusion. Daniel was stirring over by the ramp to the jumper bay, shaking his head groggily.
"~What? I will not leave! This is Alteran property!~" ranted the saboteur.
"~Not anymore, Saronus. I am property of the Tau'ri.~" Selenis declared. "~I will allow you to depart, to a safe location of my choosing. No one will follow you through the Stargate.~"
"No way!" cried Daniel as he reached for Vala's P90 and raised it against his shoulder from a kneeling position, Teal'c arrived just then and his Marines also raised their weapons at the Indesta who swung to keep Vala between him and the weapons pointed at him. "~Selenis, we cannot let him leave! And definitely not with Vala!~"
"Cameron." Sam called calmly and he looked up at her that time, meeting her gaze for several moments and drawing his mouth into a thin line. He tilted his head to the side and she nodded once lightly, crossing her arms over her chest. He turned back to face Saronus and lowered the barrel of his P90.
"Stand down, Marines." he said and backed up to give the saboteur a clear path to the 'gate. The Marines dropped their guns slightly, but not all the way. The Indesta still didn't seem like he was interested.
"NO! Sam... Mitchell, we can't!" Daniel was shaking, the P90 he held drifting unsteadily in his grip. "Teal'c! Tell them!" He turned towards Vala and looked at her in dismay. Vala was trying to shake her head, but Saronus held her throat in a vice-like grip. "Vala!" He tried to get up and Teal'c came to stand by him, supporting him and taking the gun from him.
"Colonel Mitchell?" The Jaffa looked at Cam in concern, Cam nodded imperceptibly and he lowered the weapon, the Marines following suit.
"NO!" Daniel tried to step forward, but Teal'c held on to him.
"~You'd better leave, Saronus, Teal'c might not be able to hold on to the philologist for much longer.~" Cam smirked at Teal'c's raised eyebrow. "~You've lost, let Vala go and leave, we won't follow you.~"
"~If you are choosing the destination then I will take her with me.~" He gave them all an ugly smile and the muscles in his neck tensed noticeably. "~Then I will let her go, it is safe after all, isn't it?~" The 'gate opened behind him. "~Where are you sending me, Selenis?~"
"~It doesn't matter,~" said Sam snidely from the balcony, "~you won't be there long, will you?~" Saronus glared at her.
"~No, and I will make sure you cannot follow me.~" He began walking backwards towards the 'gate. "~Mark my words, 'Tau'ri', I will return. With the power of my people behind me.~" They ignored him, each of them watched Vala, the fear and distress shining in her eyes.
"We'll see you soon, Vala." Sam said softly. "I promise." The raven-haired woman looked up at her and she tried to convey her confidence to her friend. "You're going to be my maid-of-honour, right?" Vala's eyes were brimming with tears and she nodded slightly. Saronus pulled her backwards into the event horizon while her eyes flicked to lock on Daniel's.
"VALA!" He broke free from Teal'c's grasp when the wormhole disengaged and lunged at Cameron, landing a punch to his jaw. Sam started in dismay and began running down the stairs, finding her friend yelling at the top of his lungs at the empty Stargate as Cam held him up and gripped the back of his head in consolation. She locked eyes with her love and there were questions there, but no doubts.
On to the Epilogue