FIC: Amazon Nation (2/3)

[cdybedahl]

It turned out not to be a divan, of course. Even now, Sam felt she really should've known the Amazons better than to think that. She'd seen enough to learn that when it came to comfortable furniture, their taste went to huge piles of pillows.

Which was exactly what Janet was spread out over, in a most enticing way. Fortunately for Sam's precarious peace of mind, she was dressed in a thin robe. Which didn't really hide any of Janet's shape, but at least it kept the details out of view.

The bit about being hand-fed morsels of food by half-naked young Amazons was exactly like Sam had imagined it.

"Sam!" Janet exclaimed. "Come here! Sit down, have something to eat! The food is excellent."

She approached and sat down, carefully outside arm's reach of Janet. The Amazons put the food bowls and wine pitchers in between them, and then faded out of hearing range.

"So, are you still all right with this?" Sam asked.

"Are you kidding?" Janet said. She sounded slightly drunk. "Getting a ten thousand dollar spa treatment, lots of gourmet food and sex with someone I've masturbated to I don't know how many times?"

Janet laughed, a pearly and wonderful little laugh.

"After this," she went on, "I can go another six years without a date."

Sam blinked.

"You haven't had a date in six years?"

Janet shook her head. "Not since the divorce," she said. "Too much work, too much Cassie and it's not very easy for a gay woman who doesn't like clubbing to find dates even when she doesn't have to keep it secret from the Air Force."

Even though Janet had as much as admitted it during the night, it still sent a shiver through Sam's body hearing her describe herself as gay.

"What about the woman who led to the divorce?" Sam said. "Didn't you keep dating her?"

Janet shook her head.

"I only went out with her a couple of times even before," she said. "Looking back, she was no more than a 'get out of marriage' card to me. I really should look her up and apologize."

Sam nibbled on a strip of spiced meat. It was remarkably tasty.

"I still find it hard to believe that someone as pretty as you would have a hard time finding dates, even given all those things," she said.

Janet leaned back into the pillows and drank deeply from her wine cup.

"Flatterer," she said. "Although to be honest I didn't try very hard after I ended up with the SGC. Felt kind of pointless looking for others then, after I fell in love with you."

It took a couple of seconds before Sam's brain registered what Janet had just said. Once it did, it felt like she'd been hit over the head with a tree trunk. Her mouth went dry, her palms started sweating and for a moment her vision faded to black. She stared at Janet, who looked back without any indication that she understood what she'd just said. Her pupils were a little larger than the light would account for.

She's stoned, Sam thought. She doesn't realize what she's saying. She's probably going to regret it bitterly tomorrow. And I should get out of here before she blurts out any more revelations.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're all right," Sam said. "I should get out of here and leave you to it."

Janet turned over onto her side, facing Sam more directly. Her robe fell open, revealing a large part of smoothly pale chest and most of a marvelously rounded breast. With a Herculean effort of will, Sam managed not to stare.

"I'm more than all right," Janet said. "Don't worry about me. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

She smiled mischievously.

"I'll give you a blow-by-blow recount of all that happens, if you like," she said.

If someone had been taking an EKG on her, Sam thought, it would've spelled out SOS in Morse code.

"I'll think about it," she said. Which was true. It'd probably be impossible for her to think of anything but that.

She got up from the pillows. "Good luck," she said, looking down on her stretched-out friend. "Have a great time."

"Oh, I will," Janet said, her voice heavy with emotion.

Sam walked out of there on legs that would hardly hold her up.

The temple of Aphrodite sat on the top of a hill above the Amazon village. It was built out of pale wood, and fires constantly burned near its four corners. It looked like most of it was a single large central space covered by a dome, with smaller wings stretching out from it. A well-trodden path led from the village up to its main entrance, and almost invisible path branched off from the main one. Towards the side entrances that Varia had mentioned, Sam guessed.

She was sitting under a tree again. Not the one outside their hut this time, but one that had a view of the approaches to the temple. She didn't really want to know when Janet would go in there, but she found herself unable to stay away.

Janet's words wouldn't leave her. After I fell in love with you. The thought that they had been hiding the same sort of feelings from each other for several years was enough to make her cry. At the same time, she almost wished that Janet hadn't said it. Unrequited love might suck mightily, but at least it was a whole lot less complicated than actual love. Even more so when the love in question was more or less forbidden.

Then there was, of course, the possibility that Janet was just plain stoned and what she said bore no relation to reality. But Sam couldn't bring herself to believe that any more.

On the path below the tree, a dozen Amazons in white and gold masks passed by on their way to the bath houses. One of them was noticeably shorter than the others and carried a P90 rifle rather than sword and bow. Sam frowned. Hailey sure had got into Amazon life quickly. Granted, making friends was what they were here to do, but there had to be limits. They weren't here to go native. At this rate, Hailey would have readjustment problems when they returned home.

But that would have to be a problem for another time.

Sam watched as the Amazon honor guard vanished out of her sight, and as the sun slowly crept down the sky.

"Major?"

The voice came from behind and off to the side. Sam turned towards it and saw Lt Satterfield looking concerned.

"Yes?" Sam said.

"Um, it's about half an hour to our scheduled call-in," Satterfield said. "Shouldn't we be, um, getting ready to receive it?"

"You take care of it," Sam said. She didn't feel like talking to Hammond or O'Neil at the moment. "The radio's in our hut. Tell them that the mission is proceeding smoothly, and that Dr Fraiser and I are busy closing a deal with the Amazon Queen."

The Amazons came into view again. They were divided into two groups, one walking behind the other with maybe twenty steps between them. There were seven people in each, with six of them forming a rough circle around one in the middle. The six outer ones wore the white and gold masks. Sam couldn't quite see what the ones in the middle were wearing, but it seemed to be something in the vein of the sports bra and indecently short skirt that Gabrielle usually wore. Sam stood up to get a better view.

"Major?" Satterfield said. "Is everything all right?"

"Perfectly," Sam said. "You have your orders, lieutenant. Go get that call."

Sam's gaze followed the Amazons intently until they'd reached their separate sides of the temple and she'd seen the two brides enter it, not really caring if Satterfield did as she was told or not.

She tried not to think about what was going on inside the temple, but found it impossible. Quite against her wishes, her mind kept imagining how the two women met. How they took each other into their arms and kissed. How Janet's soft, caring hands would move over Gabrielle's skin. How Gabrielle's lips would kiss their way down Janet's fair-skinned neck into the valley between her breasts.

As one movement Sam started walking up towards the temple and moved her assault rifle from its free-hanging position to the semi-ready position of being cradled in her arm.

She had to put a stop to this. She'd been wrong when she let Janet take her place in the marriage ceremony. Absolutely and terribly wrong. She didn't care any more if she messed up the whole alliance thing and they'd have to fight their way to the Stargate. She just could not stand the thought of what Gabrielle might be doing to Janet's defenseless and drugged body. Even if Janet had volunteered, even if she would have wanted this when sober, it was wrong. It was abuse, and Sam had to stop it.

If for nor other reason so because there was no other way she'd ever be able to go on living with herself.

"Major Carter?"

Sam looked up. Lost in thoughts, she'd almost reached the west entrance to the temple, and a small Amazon guard was pointing a P90 at her. She was standing directly in front of the large, ornately carved door. Her mask was made of some very pale, almost pure white, wood and was inlaid with a starburst-pattern in gold. Other than the mask, she was wearing something that most of all looked like a fur bikini top and the world record holder in skimpy skirts.

"I need to get in, Hailey," she said. "Right now."

"Can't let you do that, sir," Hailey said. "Tonight, only the brides are allowed in the temple."

Sam flipped the selector on her own P90 from safe to autofire.

"I thought your primary loyalty would still be to the Air Force," she said.

The muzzle of Hailey's weapon wavered a little. "It is, sir," she said.

"Then why aren't you obeying orders, lieutenant?"

Hailey lowered her rifle. Sam kept hers at nearly ready.

"You'll break the deal if you go in, sir," Hailey said. "They are really, really serious about this. There would be war, and after seeing these chicks hunt I really don't think we want that."

"Just stand aside and let me in."

With obvious reluctance, Hailey moved aside from the door. Sam hurried up to it and pushed down the latch that held it closed.

"This is a mistake, sir," Hailey said from behind her as she walked through the door.

"Close the door behind me," Sam said. "Don't let anyone else in. If possible, don't let anyone else know I entered."

"Yes, sir," she heard Hailey say, and then the door closed.

She was standing in an anteroom larger than her own living room. There were large torches set into the walls, but none of them were lit. The room dark but for the flickering firelight coming through the large doorway into the temple proper. Through it, she could hear soft, almost whispering, voices. A comment in Janet's voice, too low for Sam to catch what was said, was followed by a throaty laugh from Gabrielle.

Sam felt adrenaline flow into her blood. She walked rapidly but quietly through the opening and into the temple hall.

Janet and Gabrielle were sitting on a large, low bed some twenty steps away. Janet was leaning backwards supporting herself on her arms, her legs were stretched out in front of her and slightly spread. Gabrielle sat facing her. The Amazon Queen's top was gone, leaving her beautiful bosom hanging free. She, too, was leaning back, but she was only supporting herself on one hand. The other one was stroking the inside of Janet's thigh, slowly moving up under the doctor's short skirt.

Pain lanced through Sam when she saw the scene, pain born from a raw, undiluted jealousy that she'd never suspected herself even capable of.

"Get your hands off her, you bitch," she growled.

Both women's heads spun towards her, but at the moment Sam only had eyes for the object of her immediate hate.

With a movement grown smooth and quick from long practice and experience, she lifted the rifle to her shoulder, aimed at Gabrielle, and fired.

Wedding Night

"Chevron seven locked!"

The technician's voice boomed through the SGC's PA system.

"Wormhole established. Receiving MALP telemetry."

General Hammond, Colonel O'Neil, Doctor Jackson and Teal'c were standing in the gate control room, watching the empty gate room below.

"Radio is ready to use, sir," the technician said.

General Hammond held down the transmit button on the microphone in front of him.

"This is General Hammond," he said. "SG-X, do you read?"

"Um, yeah, General, we read you," a young-sounding voice came back through the speakers.

Hammond frowned. "Lt Satterfield, is that you?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, it is."

The left-behind members of SG-1 looked at each other, trying their macho best not to appear concerned.

"Where is Major Carter?" Hammond said.

"She's busy, sir," Satterfield said. "As is Doctor Fraiser. The doctor is going through a ritual to form an alliance between the Amazons and Earth, and Major Carter is..."

There was a noticeable pause.

"... keeping an eye on it," Satterfield continued. "So she asked me to take the call, sir."

Again, there were looks between the men.

"An alliance?" the General said. "So there is no problem then?"

"No, sir," Satterfield said. "The weather is nice. The food is good. The Amazons are all very friendly. Very, very friendly... I had to punch one who wouldn't take no for answer, but her friends seemed to think she deserved it, so they helped me rather than her."

This time the looks that flew through the room were more confused and less worried. Hammond let up the microphone button.

"What do you think, gentlemen?" he said.

"She hasn't used the code word for being under duress," Jack said. "So I guess she's at least speaking her own mind. I would prefer to talk to Carter, but I have no problem believing that she got too preoccupied observing something to take a call from us."

Hammond pressed the radio button again.

"Lt Satterfield," he said. "Have you seen any sign of a Goa'uld presence?"

"None, sir," Satterfield said. "They do worship a goddess who does seem to make a concrete difference in their lives, but this goddess really does not behave like any Goa'uld we've heard of."

Daniel leaned forward towards the microphone.

"Does she pose as an old Earth goddess?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Satterfield said. "As Aphrodite."

"Is there any chance she could be an Asgard?"

"Major Carter didn't think so, sir. In fact, she laughed at the idea when I suggested it."

"Laughed? Why?"

"Apparently her favorite sacrifices are jewelry, sweets and erotic writings, sir."

There was a silence in the control room while this sank in.

"Excuse me," Daniel said into the mic, "did you say she likes pornography?"

"Yes, sir. Apparently the Amazons spend a lot of their winters writing it."

Hammond let up the talk button again.

"Doctor Jackson," he said, "does this sound like any kind of being we've encountered before?"

"No," Daniel said. "I'm fairly sure I would've remembered a god-like being who likes lesbian porn, had we met one."

"Lesbian porn?" Jack said. "How do you know it's lesbian porn?"

Teal'c turned his head towards Jack and raised an eyebrow.

"They are a planet with only women, O'Neill," he said.

"Yeah, well, but they could still write...," Jack tried.

"Very well," Hammond said. He pushed the button.

"Lt Satterfield," he said. "Thank you for..."

He was interrupted by a series of sharp reports coming through the speaker.

"Was that gunfire?" Daniel said.

"Lieutenant?" Hammond barked at the microphone. "What's happening?"

"It sounded like gunfire," Satterfield said. "I don't know what it was. May be Hailey, she was out hunting with a group of Amazons earlier."

"What the hell do you hunt with an assault rifle on autofire?" Jack said.

"Something quite dangerous," Teal'c said.

"Look into it, lieutenant," Hammond said. "We'll open the gate again every hour on the hour from now until I get some kind of report on this. And I would really like to talk to Major Carter or Doctor Fraiser. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly, sir. SG-X out."

Hammond released the mic button, leaned back in his chair and pushed the entire microphone away.

"Close the gate, sergeant," he said. "Colonel, round up every female soldier we have on this base and have them stand ready in case we need to mount a rescue operation."

Sam stared in disbelief.

Twenty steps in front of her, on the bed, Gabrielle crouched. Unhurt. In one hand she held one of her strange knives, the other was stretched out straight to the side. A single thought had time to form in Sam's mind before something making a whooshing sound hit her rifle from the side and knocked it out of her hands.

She parried the bullets!

Sam took a step back. She knew she'd hit her target. She was far too good a shot to miss at such a short distance. She'd felt the recoil, she'd heard the bang from the exploding gunpowder and the sharp crack from the supersonic bullet. And she'd heard the sound of ricochets.

"Sam!" Janet screamed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

The two halves of Sam's P90 hit the floor.

Somehow, Gabrielle had gone from sitting down fondling Janet to crouching with a drawn knife so fast that Sam hadn't even seen the movement.

And she'd parried the bullets. With the knife. Even from where she was standing, Sam could see the bright spots where the bullets had impacted on the knife's metal blade. No force field. No hi-tech cheating. Just the sound of bullets ricocheting off a metal blade and proceeding to hit the walls of the room.

The whooshing sound stopped, and Gabrielle's sharp metal ring appeared in her stretched-out hand.

Gabrielle looked at Sam. Her eyes looked like pools of frozen steel.

"Are you done?" she said.

Suddenly Sam was more afraid than she'd ever been before in her entire life. The way the woman looking at her had gone to battle-ready in an instant, the way she'd brushed off Sam's surprise attack with hardly any visible effort and, maybe most of all, her total calm. It spoke of a level of control that made Sam feel utterly helpless before it.

Janet was up from the bed and moving quickly towards Sam. If she hadn't been trying to keep both Sam and Gabrielle in view she probably would've been running.

"Stay still, both of you!" she shouted. "Stop fighting!"

Gabrielle nodded once, and her stance relaxed. It didn't make Sam feel any safer.

"Sam?" Janet said. Janet was standing right in front of her, and her look of fury had changed into one of concern.

Sam's legs gave out. She collapsed into sitting on the wooden floor in a much less than dignified manner. Janet tried to support her, but the surprise and their relative sizes made more into a following Sam down than a keeping her up.

"She parried the bullets," Sam whispered.

"Yes," Janet said. "Luckily for you she did. Sam, what did you think you were doing?"

"Saving you," Sam said.

"What?" Janet said, surprised. "Saving me? From what?"

"From her," Sam said, weakly nodding towards Gabrielle. "From what she was doing to you."

A shadow passed across Janet's face.

"Sam," she said. "What she was doing to me was something that I like very much. I really hoped that you'd react better to it than this. I asked to do this, remember?"

"Not that!" Sam said. "God, definitely not that! But they drugged you. When I saw you at lunch, you were acting like you were high and your pupils were all..."

Her voice trailed off into a wordless wish for understanding. To her relief, she saw it dawn in Janet's face.

"Oh!" she said. "That. Sam, we were trying out the proper dosage for tonight. I'm not from this planet, so we thought we'd check. I was kind of spaced at lunch, because it turns out that even half their normal dose is rather too much for me."

Sam blinked.

"You knew?" she said.

"Of course I knew," Janet said. "The Amazons really are good people."

Sam looked away. "I really messed up, huh?" she said. "I thought they'd tricked you, were going to abuse you in some way."

Janet reached out and stroked the side of Sam's face.

"You really came to save me," she said. "Even though you must've known that you'd never make it out again."

Sam nodded.

"Why?" Janet asked. "I'm not important enough to die for."

"You are to me," Sam said before her brain could stop her.

Janet's hand on Sam's face stopped moving. Sam put her own hand on it, wanting the touch to continue.

"I love you," Sam whispered. "It was hard enough knowing what she'd be doing to you at first, when you volunteered. When I thought they were forcing you it got unbearable."

"Ah," Gabrielle said. She was still on the bed, but had changed to a more normal sitting position. "Now this starts to make sense."

She stepped off the bed and stood next to it, still topless.

"'Dite?" she said, quite loudly. "Is this your doing?"

"'Fraid not, tootsie-pop," a voice said out of nowhere.

What looked sort of like a tentacled brilliant white light faded into being over the bed, and then rapidly coalesced into a normal-looking woman standing next to Gabrielle. She was quite curvy, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in pink frilly bra and panties, over which she had a pink negligee so thin it hid absolutely nothing.

"Little Miss Repressed over there did it all by her lonesome," she said.

"Aphrodite," Janet whispered. Sam slid her arms around Janet's bare waist. She needed the warmth and contact.

"So you had nothing to do with it at all?" Gabrielle asked. She looked dubious. "She just went nuts by herself."

Aphrodite smiled, and somehow she managed to do it with her entire body at once.

"Yeah," she said. "Isn't it adorable?"

"Adorable," Gabrielle said. It wasn't quite a question.

"Mmm-hmm," Aphrodite said. "All that passion, bottled up for years and years and years until it finally gets that final little nudge and then... Boom! Volcano time!"

"Your adorable volcano tried to kill me," Gabrielle said.

Aphrodite waved her hand in Gabrielle's direction.

"Eh," she said. "You could handle it, sweetie. You haven't lived this long only to get shot by some jealous girlfriend."

Aphrodite turned away from Gabrielle and walked closer to Sam and Janet. In spite of feeling wrung out and terrified, Aphrodite's mere walking managed to turn Sam on.

"Hi there," Aphrodite said, looking down at Sam. "Samantha, isn't it?"

She knelt and leaned a little forward, giving both Sam and Janet clear views straight down her ample cleavage. She smiled at Sam.

"How would you like to be a priestess of the Goddess of Love?" she said.

Suddenly Janet placed herself between Sam and Aphrodite.

"No!" she said. "She's mine! You can't have her!"

Aphrodite stood up straight and squealed in delight.

"Oh you're both so sweet!" she trilled.

Gabrielle sighed. "All right, 'Dite," she said. "I only wanted to ask you a question, not invite you to the party. We're in the middle of a marriage here, you know."

Aphrodite spun around to face the queen.

"Which got interrupted," she said.

"Not very badly," Gabrielle said.

"I still get to pass judgment," Aphrodite said. "It's my temple."

"It is," Gabrielle agreed. "So what's the verdict? Is the ceremony off?"

Aphrodite turned around for a moment and looked at Sam and Janet, then looked back at Gabrielle.

"Only brides may enter," she said.

Gabrielle sighed. "That's the rule," she said. "I guess we..."

"So you all have to be brides, then," Aphrodite interrupted. "Don't you?"

She dissolved into a cloud of golden sparkling light, which transformed back into the painfully bright octopus of light.

"Have a nice night, girls," they heard Aphrodite's voice say moments before the light faded away.

The three women looked at each other. For a while nobody said anything.

"Well," Gabrielle finally said. "For some reason I suspect the big challenge tonight will be to get the two of you to pay me any attention at all."

Outside the temple, the night was dark. Lt Satterfield hadn't hard any more gunfire after the first brief salvo, but that didn't necessarily mean that the trouble had ended. Or at least that it hadn't ended well for the firer. Doing her best not to make any noise, she stalked through the woods towards the temple. After the way the Amazons had ambushed them when they arrived she had few illusions that she'd actually manage to avoid them if they were looking, but she would at least try.

To her own surprise, she got up to the temple without being accosted. The forest was thick and dark until it gave way to the cleared space around the temple building, which was lit up by torches and fires. Satterfield kept to the trees while she stalked around the place, looking for something that might be a possible point of entrance for her. There didn't seem to be any. All the doors were guarded, and there were enough guards spread around the temple that climbing the wall between two doors would be impossible without getting noticed. She was about to give up when she noticed that the guard at one door was carrying a P90.

"Hailey?" she said, still hidden in the trees. The guard spun around and pointed her rifle straight at Satterfield.

"It's me, Satterfield!" she blurted out.

The guard lowered her weapon and raised her white and gold mask, revealing herself to indeed be Lt Hailey.

"What are you doing here?" Hailey said.

Satterfield stepped out into the light.

"I heard gunfire," she said. "Is there a problem?"

"I don't know," Hailey said. She looked tense. "Major Carter forced me to let her into the temple, and after a minute or so there was gunfire inside."

Satterfield looked at the door. "Should we go inside and look?" she said.

"I already tried," Hailey said. "The door doesn't open."

"The Major locked it?"

"It doesn't have a lock. It just won't open."

"Maybe we can hear something," Satterfield said. She knelt down and pressed her ear to the door. Hailey did the same next to her.

"Voices," Hailey said.

"Yeah," Satterfield agreed. "That's Doctor Fraiser, I think."

"Can't hear what she's saying..."

"Doesn't sound too upset, though. Who's that?"

"Gabrielle," Hailey said. "And that's Major Carter."

"They don't sound very upset either."

Hailey stood up. "I guess things are more or less under control, then," she said.

Satterfield stood up as well.

"I'd better get down to the radio," she said.

Hailey looked questioningly at her.

"The shots came while I was talking to General Hammond," Satterfield said. "He got a bit worried."

"Ah," Hailey said. "I guess you'd better report in, then. We wouldn't want some kind of rescue to mess things up."

"Yeah," Satterfield said. "I only wish I could tell him when he can talk to Major Carter or Doctor Fraiser."

"After sunrise," a voice said from behind the lieutenants. They both spun around and raised their weapons at the Amazon standing there.

Varia smiled at them. "Tense, are we?" she asked.

"Um, sorry," Satterfield said and lowered her rifle. Hailey kept hers ready.

"I just came to tell you not to worry," Varia said. "Your leaders are unharmed and well, but they'll both have to stay in the temple for the night."

"Why?" Hailey said.

"Because Aphrodite says so," Varia said. "As I said, don't worry. They're safe and comfortable in there with the Queen, and the marriage ceremony between the three is proceeding, even if not quite as planned. The temple doors will open at sunrise, and then your people are free to do as they wish."

"Three?" Satterfield said. "There's a three-way marriage now?"

Varia grinned. "Or four, if Aphrodite decides to join in."

Hailey lowered her rifle. "I should get back to my post," she said.

Satterfield shook her head. "This place is way too kinky for me," she mumbled.

"I recommend you leave that part out when you talk to the General," Hailey said. She put her mask back on. "See you at breakfast."

Sam felt tired and numb. The past day, since their audience with Gabrielle, had been too much of an emotional roller-coaster for her, and she most of all felt like curling up into a ball and pretending the world didn't exist.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be an option.

She sat on the floor, in the same spot where she'd collapsed after her stupid rescue attempt. She had her knees drawn up and her forehead resting on them, and her arms wrapped around her lower legs.

"Hey."

An arm wrapped around her shoulders and a soft body snuggled up next to her. She looked up.

"You look terrible," Janet said, smiling at her.

"Gee, thanks," Sam said. "That was just what I wanted to hear."

Janet kissed her on the cheek.

"You also look adorable," she said. "My knight in shining cammo."

Sam made a sound that not even she herself could tell if it was a laugh or a sob.

"When we talked at lunch," Janet said. "Did I tell you something then? I don't quite remember. I was kind of fuzzy in the head."

Sam tried to force a smile.

"Nothing you'd have to be ashamed of," she said. "So don't worry about it."

"I don't," Janet said. "And I'd never be ashamed of saying that I love you."

Sam stared at her.

"I was teasing you a little," Janet said, looking sheepish. "Sorry about that. You really aren't in the mood for it, are you?"

Sam shook her head. "It's been a long day, and I didn't sleep very much last night."

Gabrielle sat down at the side of Sam that wasn't already occupied by Janet.

"I think you need a bath, some food, some drink and some rest," she said.

Sam turned to look at her. "You're not angry at me for trying to kill you?" she said.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I've been ruling my Amazons for well over a century," she said. "I'm used to overly emotional warrior women."

She looked Sam in the eyes. "And it's not like you're planning to try again, is it?" she said, with a clear edge to her voice.

Sam shook her head, suddenly feeling again a little of the fear she'd felt earlier.

"I thought we couldn't go back to the bath houses?" Janet said.

Gabrielle stood and reached out her hands to help the other two rise.

"We can't," she said while she pulled them both up at the same time. "But this place is meant to spend entire nights in, and you can get pretty grungy after a few hours if you work at it. So there's a small bath in the back. It won't be nearly as nice as the bath houses and it's only plain hot water, but I think it'll do."

"Sounds lovely," Sam said. She was feeling a bit more relaxed, and with that tiredness, hunger and thirst followed.

"There's just one thing we have to fix first," Gabrielle said. Both Sam and Janet looked questioningly at her.

"You're way overdressed," the Queen of the Amazons said, shaking her head.

"So you're saying that they're all right?"

General Hammond sat in front of the microphone, looking through the control room window down at the active Stargate.

"As far as we can tell, yes, sir," Lt Satterfield said through the radio speakers. "They're still locked up in the temple with the queen, but we could hear them talk normally and even laugh. Varia said that they're fine and that they'll come out after the sun rises."

Hammond thought for a moment. "This Varia," he said, "do you think she's trustworthy?"

"She's their ruler in the queen's absence, sir. Since these people put great store in honor and stuff, I'd say she can at least be trusted to keep her word. And Lt Hailey is part of the honor guard around the temple, so if something happens there we'll know about it."

"Very well," Hammond said. "We'll accept the situation for the time being, and take no action unless something new happens that warrants it. We'll go down to contacting you every three hours, unless you feel more often is necessary, lieutenant?"

"No, sir. Every three hours will be fine."

"When is local sunrise, lieutenant?"

"In about ten hours, sir."

"When you see her, tell Major Carter that if she's not there for me to talk to when we contact you twelve hours from now, I will send through troops to find her."

"Yes, sir."

"Talk to you in three hours then, lieutenant. Keep up the good work."

"Thank you, sir. SG-X out."

Hammond leaned back and gestured to the technician to close down the gate.

"What do you think, gentlemen?" he said to the three men waiting behind him.

"There appears to be no immediate danger," Teal'c said.

"Not much to go on, sir," Jack said.

"If the shooting happened in the temple as the lieutenant said, it may have been part of the ritual," Daniel said. "Displays of martial prowess were not unknown in ancient religious rituals, nor were things calculated to seriously frighten the applicant. Although usually not with firearms..."

Hammond got up from his chair.

"So none of you see any reason to take action right now?" he said.

Daniel shook his head.

"No, sir," Jack said.

"Indeed not," Teal'c finished.

The hot water lapped gently at Sam's shoulders. She felt warm and relaxed, and some food and wine had certainly done wonders for her mood. Her main problem now was that she was fast heading from merely tired into falling-down sleepy. She did her best to stifle a yawn, but didn't entirely succeed.

"Sleepy?" Janet said. She was sitting behind Sam, right by the edge of the small pool sunk into the floor of the temple's bath room. Her thigh was just behind Sam's head, perfectly placed for her to lean back on. Which was not exactly a coincidence. She was dressed in a short leather skirt, a top resembling a leather sports bra and nothing else.

"A bit," Sam said. "No worry, I can stay awake if needed."

Janet handed her a large goblet of dark, almost black, wine.

"No need," Gabrielle said. She was lying on her side by the pool's side, looking at the other two women. She had on a skirt much like Janet's but red and her knee-high soft boots. Her breasts were still bare, and Sam repeatedly found her gaze drawn to them.

"There's time for you to catch a couple of hours sleep, if you want," Gabrielle said. "As long as all of us climax by the action of another at least once before dawn, 'Dite will consider the marriage valid, and the alliance will be a fact."

Sam drank deeply from the goblet. The wine was strong, both in taste and potency. Its taste made her think of forests and blood. She passed the goblet on to Gabrielle.

"Maybe I should," she said.

"I think so," Janet said. "It wouldn't be much fun if you were fighting to stay awake the first time I got to have my wicked way with your delicious body."

Sam's mind instantly filled with tantalizing imagery.

"I really don't think I'd have any problems staying awake for that," she said as her body raced to react to the thoughts. "And why are the two of you not as tired as I am anyway?"

"We've been lounging around and taking it easy," Gabrielle said. "Instead of worrying ourselves sick. Plus, we've had a small amount of stimulant herbs."

"Why can't I have some of those?"

"Because we don't have any here," Gabrielle said. She handed the wine goblet on to Janet.

Sam stifled another yawn.

"Maybe some sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all," she mumbled.

Janet's fingers moved slowly through her hair.

"Where would be a good place for her to sleep?" Janet asked.

"There's a really big bed out in the main chamber," Gabrielle said.

"Can I talk to her alone for a moment?" Janet said.

Gabrielle shrugged, as well as she could while lying propped up on her elbow.

"Sure," she said. "I'll be in the bed."

She got up from the floor with such an effortless and graceful movement that it left both Earth women staring after her as she walked out.

"She's really something, isn't she?" Sam said.

"Most certainly," Janet said. "And while she looks exactly like the TV version, she behaves differently. Which may simply be because she's a lot older."

"Yeah, about that. How old is she? She said she's been queen here for more than a hundred years."

There was a sound behind her head of something soft falling to the floor. She turned her head to see what was going on, and unexpectedly found herself looking at a naked Janet.

She was even more beautiful than Sam had imagined. Somehow, she'd imagined that the cute doctor would look soft and pale from always working in the infirmary. The woman who was standing in front of her was far from that. Pale, yes, but not as much so as in Sam's imagination. Soft, yes, but only in a deliciously feminine way. Under the softness, there was the healthy muscle tone she really should have expected from an Air Force officer.

"From what I've heard the Amazons say, Gabrielle must be at least two hundred years old," Janet said. "Do you like what you see?"

Not trusting her voice, Sam simply nodded.

Janet slid into the pool, facing Sam and straddling her thighs, so they ended up with their breasts touching. Sam's entire skin tingled, and all of a sudden she found it hard to breathe. She had no idea what to do. There were plenty of things she wanted to do, but without knowing what Janet wanted she hardly dared move a muscle for fear of upsetting her.

But at least she had no problem staying awake.

"Sam?" Janet said, and Sam could feel her breath when she spoke. "Touch me. Please. Anywhere you want, any way you want, any time you want."

Almost by themselves, Sam's arms reached out and wrapped themselves around the woman in front of her. She pulled her close, until their bodies were pressed firmly against each other and their lips met. She felt Janet's arms around her neck, a pair of small hands gripping her hair.

When Janet's tongue eagerly met hers, the final barrier that held almost five years of pent-up emotion inside Sam broke. Without warning or fanfare, tears poured down her face. She held on to Janet with near-desperate strength, as if her life depended on it. She poured her life and soul into the kiss, as if it was the most precious thing that had ever graced the universe, until she finally had to break away to breathe.

Only a hand span in front of her, she saw Janet's expression change from desire to worry.

"You're crying," Janet said. "Are those happy tears or sad tears?"

"I don't know," Sam said, and not until she said the words did she realize that they were true. "I'm sorry."

"Hush, love," Janet said. "Just hold me and let them flow."

Sam did as she said. She wrapped her arms more solidly around Janet's body, rested her head on the doctor's shoulder and simply let the tears flow as they would. She wasn't really crying, her breath came easily, it was just tears.

If there's a tear for every time I've wished she was mine, Sam thought, this could go on for a long, long time.

"This has been a very strange trip," Janet said, speaking softly, her mouth right by Sam's ear. "First, I get an opportunity that's even wilder than my imagination's ever been. Then I find out that you want me. That you love me.

While she spoke, she kept gently stroking Sam's hair.

"In one way, I feel like I ought to wake up any moment now," she said. "Things like this just don't happen. In another way, I feel like a kid who suddenly found out that Christmas got moved to her birthday. It's too many good things at once, and I can't concentrate on both of them as much as I'd want to."

Just hearing Janet's voice, warm and friendly, was a balm for Sam's ragged nerves. Her arms loosened their grip somewhat, into more of a very firm hug than a drowning person clinging to a piece of driftwood.

"But here's the thing, Samantha Carter," Janet said. "In the morning, when this night is over, I'll still be there for you. And the morning after that, and the one after that, and, I hope, for hundreds or thousands of mornings more."

She leaned back a little so she could look Sam into the eyes.

"If you'll have me, that is," she said.

"Of course I will!"

A mischievous smile graced Janet's face.

"Are you sure?" she said. "I mean, you've only had to spend the occasional night in the field with me. You have no idea what unspeakable habits I may have at home."

Sam laughed, with tears still running.

"I've spent hundreds of nights in the field with Jack and Daniel without shooting them," she said. "You can't possibly be worse than them."

Janet smiled, warmly and lovingly.

"Good," she said. "Are you feeling a bit better?"

Sam nodded. She felt lighter inside, and the tears had stopped.

"Then I suggest we get out of the pool," Janet said, "and proceed to the bed. I hold you until you fall asleep, and while you sleep Gabrielle and I... entertain ourselves. When you wake up, you join us. How does that sound to you?"

"That sounds fine," Sam said. "But won't we get the bed all wet?"

Janet floated herself away from Sam a little bit.

"Well, if I get you that excited, I won't mind," she said, smiling.

Sam splashed water at her. "I meant from going directly from here to the bed!" she said.

Janet wiped the water from her face.

"I know," she said. "There are bath towels right up there. We can dry each other off."

She pointedly looked Sam's body up and down.

"As Gabrielle said, we have all night."

"Hailey!"

Satterfield's voice came from the bushes closest to the temple door, just like before.

"Yeah, what is it?" Hailey said, not even bothering to speak softly. "Why are you hiding over there anyway?"

Satterfield stood up. "Er," she said. "Habit?"

Hailey raised her mask and just looked. Satterfield looked sheepish.

"So, what's been happening?" she asked.

"Pretty much nothing out here," Hailey said.

"But inside?"

"I don't think you want to know."

Satterfield gave her a look.

"Look," she said. "I need to know so I can report to the general."

An odd kind of expression passed of Hailey's face.

"Ok," she said. "If you insist."

"I do."

"It seems that Doctor Fraiser is a bit of a screamer," Hailey said.

Satterfield looked confused.

"Screamer?"

"You know. When she comes."

Lt Satterfield's eyes widened.

"Oh," she said.

"And she seems to be having a good time, because I've heard her six times in about two hours now," Hailey went on. "Which doesn't surprise me, really, after what my lodge sisters told me about the queen."

"What was that?" Satterfield said, her face the very image of slightly revolted fascination.

"Well, to begin with, apparently all the women in the village have slept with her at some time or another," Hailey began. "And my sisters here says that she knows this technique which is kind of the opposite of martial arts pressure points. She'll touch you in a handful of precise spots in rapid succession, and all of a sudden you'll be so hot that you can hardly stand. Then she moves on up from there."

"All of them?" Satterfield said. "Really?"

Hailey grinned.

"Yeah," she said. "All. As far as I can tell, you're the only straight woman on the planet."

Satterfield looked clearly disturbed.

"What about Major Carter?" she said.

"Oh please," Hailey said. "Friend of mine says she's a regular at a gay club over in Cheyenne. Apparently she tries to get a dance with every short, slender brunette who happens by but never picks any of them up."

Satterfield looked away.

"I have to get back to the radio," she said in a less than convincing tone of voice.

"Sure," Hailey said. "Have a fun report."

Satterfield flinched.

"I'll just say that the ritual is proceeding well and that we have found no reason to worry," she said.

Hailey's laughter followed her all the way down to the village.

(Part three is here.)