The Vengeance Of Hathor
by John O'Connor
Disclaimer:  Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the
property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom,
MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko 
Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes
only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright
infringement is intended. The original characters,
situations, and story are the property of the author.
Notes: Spoilers for "Fair Game", "Legacy", "Learning
Curve", "Point Of View", "Rules Of Engagement",
"Forever In A Day", "Past And Present", "Jolinar's
Memories", and "The Devil You Know."
Part 8
Sam stood slightly stunned but proud and happy as
General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill pinned on her new
bronze oak leaves.
Major Samantha Carter! Major! God, but it sounded so
good. And so soon in her career.
She glanced at the personnel gathered in the Gateroom
and felt a sharp pang when she realized a certain
brunette doctor wasn't among the crowd. 'Why isn't she
here?' Sam mused before dismissing the thought; she
and Janet hadn't exactly been bosom buddies lately.
'And who's fault is that?' she chided herself.
Her next thoughts were lost as Jack O'Neill literally
vanished into thin air!
In the intervening days, too much was happening with
the Asgard-sponsored summit for Sam to give much
thought to the mess her life had become. Every time
her thoughts went that way, she consciously jerked
them back, away from the pain.
Janet, for her part, was upset that she had missed the
speech from the Defense Secretary and even more that
she had missed Sam's promotion. Unfortunately, one of
her tasks of a mother, even an adopted one, was to
take care of Cassie who had a touch of stomach flu.
The doctor didn't see Sam until the briefing about the
upcoming summit. It was a tense meeting. Janet sat
there sorely wishing she was anywhere else. But if the
summit failed, there'd be nowhere to go...
When Nurti was announced as one of the Goa'uld
representatives, Janet looked at Sam. Sam shared the
briefest of glances with her, almost a non-glance.
Janet felt overwhelmed for the first time since her
talk with Jacob.
Nurti was the System Lord who killed Cassie's people
and booby-trapped the girl. Janet wanted this one
Goa'uld to die slowly and painfully. She was startled
by feelings of guilt as well as her fear and despair.
She could have used a little of Sam's strength at that
moment.
As it was, she managed to get through the entire ugly
sequence of events and she also saved the Goa'uld,
Cronos, who Nurti had attempted to assassinate.
That night, Janet went home and wrapped Cassie up in a
big hug.
Cassie was both pleased and irritated with the obvious
show of emotion, as only a teenager could be. Secretly
she felt better for it. She missed Sam. Missed her
other mother being in her life, in their lives.
That night, both Janet and Cassie quietly cried
themselves to sleep.
The following morning, Janet was skimming the Boulder
paper and sipping at coffee as Cassie came into the
kitchen. It was the weekend and they were both free.
"Hey, there're some sales at the Mall. Wanna go with
me?" Janet asked brightly.
"I don't know. I was hoping Sam would come by," the
teen replied. "You know, to just hang out?"
Feeling her throat tighten, Janet stepped over and
brushed her fingers through Cass' long brown hair,
"Honey, I don't think she'll be coming over here today
or anytime soon. She has a lot of things to deal with.
You understand?"
Cassie nodded gravely, being the sole survivor of her
race as well as a pawn in an interstellar war had
matured her beyond her years.
But she was still a young girl. She could accept the
fact of Sam's abscence, but she still ached knowing
that one of her new mothers wasn't there with her.
"What about you?" Cassie asked. "How are you doing?"
Janet pulled the girl into her arms and tried to
stifle the sobs. Cassie held Janet tightly and they
cried together.
* * * * * *
The personnel of the SGC, and particularly SG-1, saw
the change in the relationship between Sam and Janet.
When pressed, they both said that nothing was wrong.
The rumor mill inside the mountain, however, decided
that they were fighting over some technical or
scientific thingamajig. No one, except some of SG-1,
Hammond, and Hannah in the Med Center, guessed the
real reason. As far as these few were concerned, no
one would.
* * * * * *
Machello was dead. He had been dead for many months
but his machinations lived on. His hatred for the
Goa'uld, and everything they did, had given his life
meaning after all that he had lost to them. In a way,
it gave him immortality through the devices he had
left like landmines across the galaxy, as Daniel had
described them.
When one of these landmines "exploded" and caused
Daniel Jackson to begin to exhibit signs of dementia,
Janet again found a way to ignore the aching emptiness
in her heart and to forget the vast whiteness of her
vacant bed.
Janet later realized she was still under a great deal
of personal stress when she agreed with Dr. McKenzie's
analysis that the Stargate was the cause of the
headachess some of the members of SG-1 suffered from
as well as being the cause of Daniel's dementia.
Sam wanted to argue the point during the briefing but,
without evidence to support her arguments, she was
afraid it might be interpreted as sour grapes
resulting from her disagreements with Janet.
Later, when Daniel had apparently been cured, Sam and
Janet took one of the page-turning devices into an
isolation lab for analysis. The general had privately
and emphatically ordered them to work together to try
to save Teal'c.
As they sealed themselves into the iso-ward, Sam
realized too late that Jack O'Neill was in there with
them. He wanted to be there to give what aid he could
to save his friend.
After activating the booby-trapped page turning
device, Janet saw the little white blobs skittering
around inside the small iso-chamber. They looked like
small anemic leeches, she thought as she felt a moment
of fright. When the "creatures" crawled up the outside
of her gloves, she forced herself to remain calm.
Panic ensued when she felt the freezing burn as
several burrowed through her gloves and into her arm.
She was infected! Looking up in horror, she saw the
same look of fear and panic in Sam's eyes. She
realized that all three of them were infected by the
same things that had killed the Linvris!
Before she could even begin to cope with that, she
felt her mind slipping away. Everything around her was
strange, different.
'What's happening to me? What...? O God! Keep it
away!' Janet succumbed to panic.
Sam felt the same fear and disorientation but for some
reason, the things in her died and fell out of her ear
to lay dry and dessicated on the floor matting. Sam
hurried over to Janet.
Looking up, Janet saw Sam looming over her. But it
wasn't Sam. It was a Goa'uld! The eyes flared! Only
Goa'ulds' eyes flare!
"Stay away!" Janet managed to spit out. "You're a
Goa'uld!"
Sam saw the look of stark terror in Janet's eyes as
she leaned over her former lover. The woman was scared
to death.
"Janet, it's me, Sam. I'm your friend," the blond
officer told her friend.
"So hot..." Janet felt she was burning up and began to
tear at her blouse.
Sam saw the expanse of flesh as Janet frantically
ripped at her clothes. 'What can I do?' she thought as
she saw Col. O'Neill against the far wall quivering in
fear.
Even in her frantic rush to try to stop or destroy
Machello's Goa'uld killers, Sam's eyes were drawn to
Janet. And every time, she fought the urge to crush
the woman in her arms and comfort her. 'That won't
help her,' Sam told herself.
She realized Jolinar's protein markers had told the
bugs that the Goa'uld in her was dead. Urging Janet to
hold on and help her, Sam finally separated her blood
in a centrifuge and took the proteins out to inject in
her stricken friends.
Later, when the crisis was over and everyone was
recovering, she began to ask herself why she chose
Janet first and tried to convince herself that it was
because of Janet's training and skill. In this
situation, she was more vital than Jack O'Neill.
She almost believed it too.
* * * * * *
As a result of their brush with disaster, Sam and
Janet reached an unspoken agreement. They found it
easier to work together and soon had rebuilt their
friendship to their pre-Cassie level, as Sam had
privately dubbed it.
It was like the brief period between Janet's arrival
at the SGC and Cassie's. They were able to work
together and even seem to pick up on each other's
unspoken cues as they dealt with each new crisis.
When Merrin came with her body full of nanites, Sam
and Janet worked together to try to figure out ways to
save the young girl from having her mind harvested
back on her world of Orban.
Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. Success came in
the unlikely form of Jack O'Neill. Through his
unorthodox, and potentially career-ending,
interference, the children of Orban regained a more
normal childhood.
One of the greatest challenges and the most stressful
incidents to occur for Sam followed within weeks of
Merrin's return to her peope.
APs in the Groom Lake storage facility in the vastness
of Nelis Air Force Base reacted to an intruder alert.
They found Doctor Samantha Carter and Major Charles
Kawalsky. The apparent anomaly of a dead officer being
in an ultra-secret Air Force facility brought the
situation to the attention of the SGC.
Sam, when she finally met her counterpart, was still
stunned. She stared at this woman from a
Goa'uld-dominated Earth with the long blond hair who
had been married to Jack O'Neill and wondered how it
could have been.
Was it possible? Could she have loved Jack O'Neill?
What about Janet? It was confusing. Too confusing.
Fortunately, while she was still learning to cope with
the oddness of the situation, Sam was working or
discussing it with the others on her team. She never
had to spend any time alone with Samantha for the
first day the scientist was in the mountain.
Sam was extremely grateful for that. It was weird
enough dealing with Kowalski who she barely knew and
saw die. Well, not that she knew this one but the
other who the Goa'uld had taken over...
Sam often found herself shaking her head in sympathy
with Jack O'Neill. As an astrophysicist, she was
familiar with quantum theory and the hypothesis of
parallel worlds. But to actually come face to face
with the reality of it in such a personal way...it was
a hell of a lot to absorb.
Janet offered what little support she could between
the initial tests of the wayward SGA people and her
other duties as CMO.
When Samantha began to experience the effects of
entropic cascade failure, Janet had too much to handle
and Sam tried to stay out of her way.
Finally, the decision was reached to go back to the
other Earth and attempt to contact the Asgard and
hopefully drive the Goa'uld away. Sam knew she had her
work cut out for her. She had to figure out how the
Asgard power booster worked, a problem she had been
trying to solve for almost a year.
When Samantha Carter volunteered to help, Sam was
grateful. Her hope was that, even with similar thought
processes and experiences to some extent, the
differences between them would help stimulate the flow
of ideas and solve the problem.
If they didn't, Samantha Carter, and possibly
Kowalski, would die here and their Earth become a
source of slave labor for the System Lords.
Working side by side in her lab was not as difficult
as Sam had feared it would be. Maybe it was because
she had a chance to accept the situation. It seemed
like her alternate was feeling the same way.
Between discussions of naqadah and power consumption
versus decay rates, they took an occasional breaks for
coffee. Sam took one of these breaks to finally ask
her counterpart the things she had been wondering
since they had arrived from southern Nevada.
"Why didn't you want to join the Air Force?" Sam
asked, still slightly irritated by Samantha's attitude
about the service when they first met in the
conference room.
"I did when I was younger. I wanted to do everything
Dad did. He was my hero. But then, when Mom was killed
because he was busy with some goddamned Air Force
crap..." Samantha's voice was edged with bitterness.
"I felt the same then. But by the time I finished high
school, I realized that I wanted to go into space and
the best shortcut to NASA was through the service."
Sam looked into the other woman's eyes, "What about
your dad? Is...was he...?"
Samantha shook her head. "No, he died of cancer last
year." She stared at her hands and her voice broke as
she continued, "I never got a chance to say goodbye or
tell him that I still loved..."
Tentatively placing her arm around Samantha, Sam
quietly said, "I'm sorry. I...I almost lost Dad too. I
shouldn't have..."
Samantha shook her head, "It's not your fault. I'm
just so screwed up since Jack..."
They sat there for a long moment before the
long-haired woman took a deep breath. "So, you and
your Jack?" It was Sam's turn to shake her head. "Is
there someone? That Doctor Jackson seems..."
"No, there's no one. Not now. Not since...not now."
"Want to tell me about it? Jack, my Jack, always said
I was a good listener," Samantha offered.
Sam shook her head then paused and decided to give the
woman an abbreviated version of the nightmare she was
still suffering. Afterwards, Samantha hugged her
tightly.
"Did you try to explain all this to...to your lover?"
Sam stared at the floor, "I tried. But I still feel
like I failed her, uh - I failed them. I had been
willing to do anything for Hath...her, including
betraying my friends and family. I still feel so
ashamed. I was weak and..."
Samantha placed her hand on Sam's clenched fists, "I
don't think so. I think you are a strong, capable
woman. Doctor Fraiser still loves you." Sam's head
jerked up. "And I think..."
"You know? How? Have you told...?"
Samantha cut her off, "No, I haven't said anything. I
gathered that the military is still pretty homophobic
here too. I can see things. I saw how the doctor would
look at me, her subtle reactions when I mentioned my
Jack..." The woman looked down and took several
breaths. "I mean, everyone who knows you is looking at
me but she had a strange look in her eye. It looked
like jealously but I wasn't sure then if it was over
Jack. And she always turned away when I caught her,"
Samantha smiled. "I suspected she had feelings for you
that were more than friendship but I wasn't sure about
you until your little slip a moment ago."
Sam, looking both relieved and flustered, said,
"Whatever we had, Hath... She killed. I could never
expect Janet to trust or even want me in her life."
"Shouldn't she be the one to make that decision?"
"No, I don't want her to have to. It's easier this
way," Sam said.
"Easier for who?" Samantha countered. "Not for her. I
saw the pain in her eyes. She still loves you."
"But she deserves better than me," Sam said, choking
back a sob.
"Maybe. Maybe my Jack deserved better than... It's not
your place to decide. It's hers. Unless you don't want
her anymore?" the widow asked.
"I do. I don't. God, I don't know anymore!"
"Sam," Samantha took her hand and held it gently. "I
lost my love. I can never see him again, feel him,
hear him, love him again. You haven't lost her, not
yet. But you will... You don't want to live your life
alone. I'm staring at that possibility, no, probablity
and it is terrifying! As long as you have her love,
and you love her, you can overcome anything..."
Sam looked into blue eyes that were so like the ones
she saw in the mirror everyday, bloodshot and
red-rimmed from crying in private. She saw the
sincerity of her counterpart and the caring.
"I don't know if Jack...if we had a love that would've
lasted... I don't know if you do, but I see in your
eyes that you still want her. That you still love her.
Do yourself, and her, a favor...don't lose that."
Samantha held Sam's hand and eyes for another minute
then said, "C'mon, let's see if we can get this damned
thing to work..."
They did and Jack O'Neill led Daniel, Teal'c,
Kawalski, and Samantha through the mirror and managed
a typical last minute save. Sam stayed behind to avoid
suffering from the entropy effect.
As she stood before the mirror and watched Teal'c and
Daniel return, she saw Samantha lean in and kiss Jack.
Her face had a stricken look. She knew the pain
Samantha was going through. Nothing hurt as much as a
lost love...
* * * * * *
Janet didn't see Sam for quite some time after the
alternate Sam had returned to her own reality. Between
secret meetings at the Pentagon and classified virolgy
seminars she gave USAMRIID at Fort Detrick and later
to the upper levels of the CDC in Atlanta, she was
often gone from the SGC when SG-1 was on-world.
She wasn't too happy about that. After the unsettling
experience of seeing a married and widowed Sam, Janet
really felt she had to talk to her friend. She was
pretty sure that Sam needed to talk just as much about
the strangeness of the other reality.
'I wonder where I was there? Did I even exist on that
Earth?' Janet mused one quiet night in the Med Center.
Later, after helping SG-1 convince Apophis'
infiltration unit that their "god" was dead, Janet
tried to approach Sam in the locker room.
Smiling at the blonde's camouflaged appearance, Janet
quipped, "I love your new make-over. Mario Tricocci?"
"Har-de-har-har Doctor. You are no comedian," Sam
replied. "This stuff plays hell with my complexion!"
"Well, Major, I know Cassie uses some great zit cream.
Want to try some?"
"Thanks, Janet. I appreciate the invitation but I'm
exhausted. I'd rather go home," Sam replied.
'You used to feel like you were home once,' Janet
reflected sadly, quietly.
"Rain check?"
The doctor nodded slowly, "Sure. But you better use
it. Cassie misses you." 'So do I.'
"Promise," Sam said sincerely.
Before Sam could come to see her young friend, the
Abydonians were taken by Sha're, Daniel's wife. The
situation was quickly resolved but at a higher cost
than any of them had wanted. Sha're was killed as her
Goa'uld master, Amonet, tried to kill Daniel.
The grey, windy day on the desolate plain seemed
tailor made for a funeral. And it reflected Sam's
mood. Everyone was losing someone, it seemed to her.
Everyone was in pain.
The memorial service was hard. Sam and Janet were both
reminded of their own loss as Daniel laid to rest the
woman he loved.
Not long after, SG-1 was again in action off world.
They ended up on a planet that was a technological and
cultural mix of mid-20th century and the Victorian era
Earth. The planet was inhabited by people all in their
twenties who had no memory of the past.
Janet came there and performed some tests then took
several people back to the SGC. She was able to help
free the population from the mass amnesia but in the
process, the woman who helped them the most, Ke'ra was
found to really be the interstellar mass-murderer
Linea, also known as the Destroyer of Worlds.
Sam and Janet worked well together as they attempted
to solve the mystery and help the indigenous
population. Again, it was like the time shortly after
Janet came to the SGC and she hoped again for some
breakthrough in her relationship with Sam.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. Martouf of the
Tok'ra came with the horrifying news that Sam's
father, Jacob had been captured by agents of Sokar and
was being held on the prison moon, Netu. Only
Martouf's dead lover, Jolinar, had ever escaped from
Netu and so the Tok'ra was hoping Sam could access her
memories and help free her father.
Sam's attitude was that, Jolinar or not, she was going
to free her father. No one could possibly stop her.
Accompanied by Martouf, SG-1 journeyed to Netu and
fell into Brynna's control. The evil Goa'uld wanted
revenge on Jolinar for her duplicity when she escaped.
He also found he had potentially valuable hostages in
his grasp. Before he could make use of them, his Prime
killed him and revealed himself as the resurrected
Apophis!
Using a memory device, Sam and the others were
subjected to memory manipulation as Apophis tried to
get the iris code for Earth's Stargate. He wanted
revenge on the planet that had been such a problem for
him as well as to regain his place with the System
Lords. If he was able to destroy Sokar in the process,
so much the better.
Sam experienced the days of her mother's death and
felt anew her anger and hatred of her father for
allowing Mom to die. All to soon, she realized that
she wasn't a teenager and her father was older than he
should have been. Once she saw through the ruse, Jacob
became Apophis and the manipulation ceased.
For a time.
* * * * * *
Sam was in the living room of Janet's house. Janet was
curled in her arms and Cassie was off somewhere,
leaving them alone. Sam felt so right and so safe with
the little brunette in her life and in her arms.
Janet turned her head slightly and asked, "Sam? What
are you thinking?"
"How happy I am now."
Nodding, Janet said, "Good. I want you to be happy.
You know what would make me happy?"
"No. What?" Sam smiled.
"If you told me the iris code..."
"What? Why? What difference does it make?" Sam was
confused.
"It's just a matter of trust, Sam," Janet said.
Sam disentangled herself from Janet and stood. "Janet,
why do you need the iris code?"
"Please, Sam. Just tell me and everything will be
fine. We can stay together forever..."
Realization dawned and Sam stumbled backwards away
from the couch. "You're not Janet! This is all a
trick! Just like with Dad! You bastards! You fucking
Goa'uld bastards!" Sam shouted.
Janet suddenly changed and Apophis was again standing
in front of Sam. With a soundless yell of rage and
hatred, Sam launched herself at the alien.
Apophis raised his hand and fired the ribbon device he
was wearing. The energy hit Sam and slammed her back
across the room. When she woke up, she was back in the
cell with Jack, Daniel, Martouf, and her father, dying
as a result of injuries to his symbiote, Selmac.
Fortunately, Teal'c's timely interference saved the
five before Netu was destroyed by a Tok'ra bomb. As
they returned home, Sam and Jacob agreed to go to
Alaska for a vacation somewhere cool and peaceful.
* * * * * *
A couple of weeks later, Sam was sitting on a deck
chair as the Princess cruise ship she and her father
were on slowly made it's way through Glacier Bay in
Alaska's Inland Passage. She was bundled in a blanket
and thoroughly enjoying the cool air and the
magnificent vistas.
Jacob came up with hot cocoa for them. Handing one of
the steaming mugs to Sam, he said, "This sure beats
the hell out of Netu!"
Sam chuckled, "Yeah, it does. How are you?"
Shaking his head in resignation, Jacob replied, "For
the hundredth time since we left Vancouver, I'm fine!
I'm great! Okay?"
"Okay. Okay." Sam held up her hands in surrender with
a laugh.
"Sam, how are you?"
Giving her father a brief smile, she nodded, "I'm
okay. This is so beautiful. If only..." Sam stopped.
She hadn't meant to say that out loud. Thankfully, she
stopped before she said too much.
"If only? If only what?" Jacob asked.
"Nothing, Dad. Nothing," Sam said.
"If only Janet was here?" Sam spun her head around at
that.
"What? What are you talking about? Janet?" Sam asked.
"What about her?"
"Sam, I'm your father. I figure things out. It's what
fathers do..." Jacob smiled. He had planned this since
they were on the ship returning from Netu. and he was
going to talk to Sam, not Selmac. Not this time.
"Sam, I know about you and the doctor. And it's okay.
I still love you and I think the doctor is a wonderful
person who cares deeply for you," Jacob paused.
"Selmac believes that you two share G'straa - a
soul-link. He, she, Selmac feels that you and Janet
are destined to be together."
"No, Dad. Not possible. I betrayed her. If she only
knew how much, she'd hate me as much as I hate myself.
As much as I hate the bitch who caused all of this."
"She does know." Sam stared at her father as he nodded
gently, "You were off your rocker when they first
brought you into the Med Center. Apparently, the
sedatives were effecting you and you said some things
and shouted others. Most were relatively innocuous,
like asking for teammates and friends. But you did, in
Janet's presence, describe what that evil... What she
did to you and what she made you agree to."
Sam shook her head again, "No, Dad. She can't know
what I swore to Hath...to her. Janet can't know that I
promised to help her while she... Janet can't have
heard that!"
"She did. She told me all about what that...that
creature did to you." Jacob's voice was cold, colder
than any glacier they had seen. Sam placed her hand on
his arm.
"Dad, it's okay. She's dead. She'll never hurt anyone
else again."
Jacob smiled tightly, "No, Sam, she still has the
power to hurt you. She will, as long as you let her.
"Sam, I still don't understand what it is between you
two. I guess I'm just old-fashioned... But that
doesn't matter."
Jacob paused again and looked at the glacier sread
across the shore across the bay from their ship. He
barked out a small laugh, "I never thought I'd be
asking my daughter this. Sam, do you love Janet?"
With tears filling her eyes, Sam nodded.
"Good. She loves you too. Like I said, I don't
understand it but I accept it. You two have something
special. Selmac loves to point that out to me." Jacob
smiled, "I love your mother. Still. After all these
years. There will never be another woman to take her
place in my heart."
"Dad?" Sam was confused by the sudden change of
subject.
"No matter how long I live with Selmac inside me, I
will love her and cherish every memory and thought of
her. That's the kind of love you share with Janet. And
it's a very special bond. Very few people are lucky
enough to have that in their life. Don't throw it away
on some mistaken belief that you're protecting her.
Please, Sam." Jacob pleaded.
"I don't know, Dad. I will always feel like I betrayed
her..."
"And I've never forgiven myself for causing your
mother to take that cab. But you have to try. Okay?"
Sam knelt next to his deck chair and smiled at him,
"Thanks Dad. Maybe I can try..."
"Now that's my little Sammy," Jacob beamed.
She wrapped her arms around her father and they held
each other as the ship cruised quietly along.
* * * * * *
When they returned to the mountain, Sam missed Janet.
She had to return to Washington, this time taking
Cassie with her. Their talk would have to wait.
Meanwhile, Jacob stopped in to see his old friend
George. They spent several hours locked in the
general's office, the gist of their discussion not
even recorded on the ever-present monitors.
* * * * * *
SG-1 left for a mission within hours of Jacob's return
to the Tok'ra. As missions go, it was fairly
uneventful.  For a change.
Upon their return to the SGC, the weirdness started.
Everyone was cold, stiff, and formal. The usual
kidding around with the support staff and the medical
staff was missing. When asked, the SGC people claimed
that everything was fine.
Sam waited for her post-mission inoculation, wondering
when she'd get a chance to talk to Janet. The curtain
parted and the doctor stepped in.
As Sam dropped her trousers and bent over, she
wondered at Janet's demeanor. Had she waited too long?
Had she lost Janet even as a friend?
These thoughts, and any others, faded into oblivion as
the shot took effect and she slumped onto the
examination table, unconscious.
 (c) John O'Conner
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