The Roots That Clutch 2

Opportunities

by Tittamiire

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/ast/tittamiire/rootst02.php
Summary: Vala is looking for her next scheme

Vala accepted the drink from the waitress and tipped her enough to ensure prompt service for the rest of the evening. She swirled the clear liquid in her glass, sipped it and surveyed the room casually. She wasn't quite sure what she was after. It was either an easy mark or a bit of fun, but either way if she didn't find it she wasn't going to mourn too much. She had made a killing in the last scheme and had plenty left to see her through until something appropriate came up. She was, irritatingly, stuck on this rock at the moment after a bit of double, triple and perhaps even quadruple crossing between her and the guy she'd paired up with for the deal and she had, yet again, vowed never to work with anyone in the future.

The clientele tonight were depressingly mundane and sparse. The few of them there were didn't look like they'd got anything worth pinching, both in terms of wealth or physical assets. They were serious long haul drinkers in tonight, heads bowed, eyes and souls averted from the world and even those drinking in groups were drinking alone. Vala sighed to herself and drained half her drink to see if it would make the night look more promising and considered that she had probably made a mistake in tipping the waitress so generously.

A tall blonde woman entered the bar slowly, peering around somewhat warily as she did so. She looked like she was trying her hardest to be surreptitious. Instead she was managing to stick out like a sore thumb in the process, partly through ineptitude, but mostly because she was a tall, slender and blonde haired woman in a room full of unwashed and bearded male drunks. Vala watched her reflection in the grimy glass behind the bar, interested by the small possibility that tonight wouldn't be a total wash out after all. The woman took a seat at the far end of the bar and ordered a drink, glancing furtively around the room as she did so. Her hair was short and choppy, looking as if she'd gone at it in a fit of pique with a knife. A grubby leather trench coat covered most of her with black boots, green trousers and a black shirt visible underneath. Grubby was a good description for her state in general but Vala noticed that it was a different type of muck compared to the other inhabitants of the bar, theirs was deeply ingrained by a lifetime of poor hygiene and apathy whereas hers was only a surface covering and the difference amused Vala slightly, though she couldn't have said why. The blonde drank in silence for several minutes and Vala finished her drink. She toyed with the glass briefly before getting the attention of the waitress and ordering another. As an afterthought she bought another drink for the blonde woman, just to see what would happen. She watched in the reflection again as the waitress put the drink down in front of her and indicated Vala at the far end of the bar. She found herself smirking as the blonde shot her a withering look, though Vala was way beyond withering under looks alone and the drink did at least stay in front of her. Vala got up from her bar stool, her own drink in hand, and wandered slowly down to the far end of the bar.

"So," she announced, leaning onto the bar next to the woman and grinning at her, "what's a nice girl like you doing in a shit hole like this?"

The woman gave her a slow and appraising look. "Piss off," she said in a flat voice.

"Now, is that any way to thank someone for buying you a drink?"

She looked at the drink in question and shoved the glass towards Vala with her hand, causing the liquid in the glass to slosh. "Keep it," she told Vala and planted her hands onto the bar to stand up from the stool and leave.

"Samantha?" They both stopped and turned to look at the speaker. Another man had entered the bar quietly while they'd been, well, bickering in all honesty, and was walking over to them. When 'Samantha' saw him she sat back down and Vala took her cue to leave them to it, with a little wave of course. She took a seat further down the bar, but not too far, she was nosy after all and she was intrigued. She'd felt the weird wrench in her gut that meant there was a symbiote in that man. The man in question looked around and took a seat next to Samantha.

"Martouf," she had answered slowly in greeting. Vala swirled the ice in her drink and watched them in the reflection behind the bar.

"How are you?" He asked slowly and she shrugged. There was a sad tenderness to his voice that Vala could hear. This sounded complicated.

"Oh you know. You? And Lantash?"

"We're both well." Martouf shook his head at the bartender when she offered him a drink. He placed a box on the bar in front of Samantha and she acknowledged it with her eyes, but made no movement to pick it up.

"Crystals for the ring system, what else do you need?" He asked gently.

"Spare parts for our cannons mostly, but also the usual, food, supplies, everything."

"I can't help you," he sounded sorrowful.

"You don't have the parts?"

"The High Council has forbidden me to give you assistance."

Samantha gave a short and bitter laugh. "We figured it was coming to that."

"Your last attack killed one of our operatives."

Samantha bowed her head and blinked slowly at that news. "If you'd just share intelligence with us, let us work with you." She said in a voice almost too quiet for Vala to hear.

"You know why we can't do that."

She nodded and wrapped her arms around herself, "My father?"

"He is alive"

"Can I see him?"

"He is still deep undercover."

"It's been a year Martouf."

"I know Sam, I am sorry."

Martouf had placed his hand over Sam's and she lifted her hand to interlock her fingers with is. They were both looking at their hands rather than each other and Vala felt uncharacteristically uncomfortable watching it. The two sat in silence for a few long minutes while Vala sipped at her drink.

"I have to go Sam," but he didn't let go of her hand.

"I know"

They stayed that way for another beat and then Sam tugged her hand from Martouf's and looked steadily at her drink.

"Thank you Martouf," She tapped the box, "this means a lot."

Sam tucked the box under one arm, and looked down again at the full drink that was still sitting in front of her. Martouf looked like he was going to say something, but thought better of it and left instead. Sam continued to stare at the drink in front of her, gave a small shrug, knocked it back in one and got up to leave the bar. Vala tapped her fingernail on her glass thoughtfully. As Sam passed her she snagged the other woman's arm, receiving a look in response that made it quite clear she was lucky to have kept her hand.

"I might be able to help you"

Sam gave Vala that weighted appraising look again, "With what?"

"Spare parts and supplies. What your Martouf couldn't"

Sam planted her spare hand on the bar and looked at Vala, "You've got stuff to trade?"

Vala sipped her drink again slowly and shook her head, "No, but I have contacts and I can tell you for definite that you won't find what you want here."

"What'll this cost us?"

"Not a lot. A ride. You will give me a lift to where we're going and I'll introduce you to my contacts."

She seemed to contemplate this for a minute before nodding, "Give me five minutes, if I don't come back it's a no."

"Fair enough," Vala shrugged and finished her drink as Sam disappeared through the door that led out of the bar. The woman had seemed desperate and she suspected she would be back. She was right, two and a half minutes later Sam reappeared in the doorway and beckoned to Vala with a nod of her head. Vala grinned and jumped down off the bar stool, surreptitiously checked her pockets and her gun, fluffed her hair and left the bar with a wink at a gawking drunkard.

Sam held the door open for her and they stepped out into the dark and heavy night that was usual for the town they were in. It was crowded and the air was thick with noise and the smells of sweat and life. Vala threw her head back and looked around.

"I'm Vala by the way," she said as Sam followed her out of the door.

"Got everything you need?" Sam asked her and Vala nodded.

"And I'm Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter"

"Long name. Where's your ship then?" She asked Sam, who ran her hand through her hair briefly and gestured to the right.

"This way," she led the way easily through the crowds, the intense disdain for the people around her she exuded giving her a clear way through as much as her elbows did. Vala followed just as easily, relying on other skills to wend her way through the press. They popped out of the crowds of the main street onto narrower back streets and Sam picked the pace up now they were free of the dense mass of the main streets. Vala was thoughtful, she recognised the woman's name, but she couldn't remember why. The thought niggled at her mind insistently as they walked.

"Where are we going?" Vala asked, aware she was breaking many of her own self imposed rules for living a longer life by following this woman.

"The ship"

Vala rolled her eyes, "Where's that?"

"Outside town. Where are you going to take us?"

"I'll tell you that when it's too late for you to kick me off the ship," Vala said sweetly and smiled broadly when Sam looked back at her, despite the fact that she still hadn't told her where they were going.

"Don't worry, we keep our word," there was a definite emphasis on the 'we' in that sentence that amused Vala. Whoever 'we' was they apparently considered themselves to be honourable in a dishonourable world, which Vala considered foolish on many levels. Honourable people could be predicted and pre-empted. Maybe she could get more out of these than just a ride.

Vala did get a little nervous when they left the lit streets of the town and headed across the dark scrubland surrounding it. Dark was only relative as the night was clear and both moons were bright in the sky, but cities and towns were where she felt comfortable, not here. People could be manipulated in ways that allowed her to feel in control. Natural situations couldn't.

"Where are we going?" Vala repeated and kept her voice casual despite her discomfort.

"Not far," Sam didn't look back this time and reached into her pocket for something. Vala tucked her jacket back and reached for the gun concealed beneath it, just in case. It was the only reason she'd wear something as shapeless as this. However, Sam pulled out some kind of communication device rather than a weapon and lifted it to her mouth to speak into it.

"Sir? We're here"

"Acknowledged Carter"

They were walking down into a shallow dip in the land. Ahead of them a thin line of light popped into existence and grew to a rectangle doorway of orange light that remained significantly free of any movement or other signs of life. There was nothing else visible around the apparently cloaked ship. Sam tucked the communicator back into her pocket and glanced at Vala.

"Keep your hands in sight," she instructed her somewhat harshly. Vala pulled her hand from the small of her back where it had been resting on her gun and did as instructed as they stepped towards the ship. Sam stepped into the doorway ahead of Vala and she followed her, blinking in the significantly brighter light inside the ship. There was the sound of the door shutting behind her and an electronic sound near her head and Vala looked to see a zat pointed at her. A grey haired middle-aged man, who looked at her and smiled without looking welcoming, was holding the zat on her. There were a handful of other men and one other woman also present in the immediate vicinity of the door and all were holding weapons of some kind and pointing them at her.

"Keep your hands up," he ordered and she did, cursing herself inwardly for obviously being so foolish as to walk into whatever trap this was, but keeping herself assured smile in place on the surface.

"Carter," the man said to Sam, but kept his eyes on Vala and Sam stepped forward to search Vala thoroughly. Vala couldn't resist making a couple of crude comments during the process as the woman's slender and disappointingly businesslike hands ran over all her clothes and she sighed heavily when her gun and small knife were removed from her waist and her boot respectively. Sam handed them to the guy holding the zat.

"Done Sir," she reported quietly and stepped back away from Vala. The man holding the lowered it and indicated to the others in the room to do the same. However, he didn't close the zat or place it in the holster she could see was attached to his thigh.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill," he indicated himself

"Another long name. Vala," she indicated herself, "just Vala. My parents valued being succinct." Vala took a long lazy look around the ship they were in. Tt was definitely Goa'uld in origin, and the décor was unmistakable. However these were clearly not Goa'uld, though one was a Jaffa by the gold tattoo, though she couldn't sense a larval symbiote within him, which was curious. Sam handed the box to Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"From Martouf"

"Any luck with the other stuff?" Colonel Jack O'Neill asked harshly after he flicked the lid up to check the contents.

Sam shrugged, "It's all he could do." Her voice was laced with the emphasis that she clearly believed Martouf had done his best for them.

Colonel Jack O'Neill gave a cynical exhale and refocused his attention on Vala.

"So, Vala, you can get us what we need?"

"I can put you in touch with people who have what you need, in exchange for a lift there and a small commission."

"No commission, just a ride"

She sighed dramatically, but wasn't too upset, "Fine. Let's get going. Once we're out of the atmosphere I'll direct you."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm not telling you. What's to stop you flushing me out into space once I tell you."

"What's to stop you leading us into a trap?"

"Aren't we both delightfully paranoid," she said brightly. Colonel Jack O'Neill looked towards the Jaffa.

"Teal'c, keep an eye on her. Let's get this tub going." He finally holstered the zat and gestured to Vala to walk in front of him. The other people in the room lowered their weapons, all except the Jaffa, who kept the Zat on her. Sam led the way out of the small room immediately adjacent to the door and down some corridors. Vala looked around. She guessed they were on an Alkesh but they weren't usually cloaked. It seemed like whomever these people were they'd been doing some upgrading. She looked around casually at the group of people she could see. All of which were now traipsing along the corridor either ahead of her or behind her. They were all tattered and grubby to some degree, both in attire and themselves. Each of them had rough cut short hair, which suggested that, to them at least, practicality was much more important than appearance. They all wore the same trousers and black boots, though there was a level of variation as some trousers were blue, some green and some multicoloured (both intentionally and because of patching). A couple wore different jackets in a type of camouflage that were also patched and repaired, but the differences seemed to only highlight the uniformity between them, which was, to Vala, very odd. There were few organisations in the galaxy that went in for deliberate uniforms and most of them involved snakes being implanted into heads or bellies.

The odd procession arrived in the control room of the Alkesh and several of the group went to various controls around the room. Vala watched Colonel Jack O'Neill take the throne. Teal'c handed his weapon to Sam to allow him to take the seat in front of the flight control console and the others took up different controls around the room, except Sam, who kept an eye on Vala.

Colonel O'Neill didn't give any orders, but what was apparently his crew worked together and eerily silently to get the Alkesh into the sky. Vala was somewhat mesmerised by their silent team work and was surprised when Colonel O'Neill spoke up,

"So, now will you tell us where we're going?"

"Woronsen"

He gave her a blank look.

"Got a star chart I can look at?" Vala asked in her best 'stating the obvious for morons' voice.

Teal'c moved his hands on the controls and brought up what she asked for on the heads up display, zooming in slightly on their current region of the galaxy. Vala glanced at Sam and did her best flounce over to the display.

"There," she pointed and Teal'c zoomed in on the region further. She pointed again to the particular star, "Set a course for its fourth planet. That is Woronsen." Teal'c set the course in and the Alkesh entered hyperspace. Everyone relaxed a little as the purple swirl of hyperspace filled the screen in front of them.

"Alright, get some rest everyone." Colonel O'Neill intoned from the throne. "Watches in here, three hours each, Teal'c, Daniel, and Harriman. And watches for our guest, Carter, Siler and Fraiser. Repeat until destination reached."

'Yes Sir's' sounded from around the room and there was a movement towards the door. Teal'c remained seated where he was at the control console. Carter waited until everyone else had exited the room and then gestured at Vala with the zat.

"C'mon Vala, let's find somewhere to put you."

"Am I a hostage?"

"No, but we don't want someone we don't trust running around our ship"

Vala considered this. "Fair enough," she concluded.

"You ready to sleep?"

"No, but I'm starving"

"Okay"

They didn't go far. It seemed as though the small group was utilising the rooms immediately around the control room for everything and Vala saw most of the group settling down to sleep in one of the rooms on bunks that matched them, but not the ship. Sam entered a room beyond that and with a careful look at Vala she holstered the zat and reached into a white cabinet to retrieve a covered dish. The room was peculiar. There were items of distinctly un-Goa'uld origin spliced into the crystal-based power system and the whole room looked jerry rigged. Sam peered under the cover and sniffed the contents suspiciously before handing it to Vala. Vala accepted the dish and the fork and bread roll that followed it, and peered at each item suspiciously. Sam sat down on one of the crates in the room and Vala followed suit, popping the container lid properly and digging into the cold, brown and lumpy mush within. Despite the appearance and consistency it was surprisingly edible.

Sam watched her eat, but while the other woman's eyes were on Vala she could see that her mind wasn't.

"So," Vala said between mouthfuls, "who is everyone? If I'm gonna spend the next few days with you guys I should know."

"Uh, well you've met the Colonel, me, Teal'c's the big bald guy with the tattoo, then the guy with the glasses is Doctor Daniel Jackson, the short bald guy is Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman, the taller light haired guy is Sergeant Siler and the other woman is Doctor Janet Fraiser."

Vala was mopping the gravy up from the inside of the bowl with her bread roll, "Long names again, Teal'c's the only one with a sensible name."

"Well, you can call me Sam; you'll have to ask the others what they want you to call them."

"See, Sam is so much easier than Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter."

Sam shrugged slowly and sounded defensive, "There's a lot of meaning behind my name, to me anyway."

"Oh?"

Sam sighed and looked at Vala before she replied, considering something. "Lieutenant Colonel is, or was, my rank in an organisation on my home planet. Samantha was the name given to me by my parents and Carter is the family I come from."

It sounded like a confession of guilt, the way she said it and the mingling of past and present tenses spoke of confusion. Vala polished the bottom of the bowl and finished the last of the bread with a satisfied sigh. The food had been dull, but filling and that was good enough for her.

"So? What do you do for fun on this ship?"

"We don't have much time for fun. Don't you want to sleep?"

"Not yet. No fun? Well this sucks, I definitely should have insisted on commission if I'm going to be bored."

"We don't have much time for that either."

"Well, don't let me keep you up."

Sam gave her 'a look' and no answer. She fiddled with a leather bracelet around her wrist and seemed happy to sit in silence. Vala disliked silence.

"So who are you?" She gestured to indicate the collective instead of the individual.

Sam shrugged, "once we were members of the SGC, some of us were a team called SG1, but now, I don't know."

"SG1?" Vala rolled the name around her mind, hoping it would hit against something familiar, it sounded like it should. Eventually it triggered a memory, a mention in passing. She poked at the memory carefully, just in case it was painful - she'd spent a lot of time burying some of her memories – but it wasn't. It was a memory of a report, nothing direct and Vala felt relatively safe to examine it.

"Ahh, SG1! I remember now, you were a real pain in the Mik'tah to several of the System Lords for years. You Tau'ri had a penchant for taking down the big guys."

Sam nodded gently and replied wryly, "That's us."

"What happened? Last I heard you'd been wiped out, yet here you are sitting very much alive, if a little in need of a shower and a sense of humour, in front of me."

"Some of us managed to evacuate through the Stargate to an off world base."

"Only seven of you?"

"There are more, our 'best and brightest.' They're still at the base."

"And what, they send you on missions?"

"No, we had a falling out and left"

"Ahh, you're rebels?"

Sam shrugged again, that shrug was beginning to annoy Vala, "I guess so."

Vala rolled her eyes, "So, what has brought you out here?"

"Trying to get our ship repaired," she gave Vala a weighted and considered look. "We took some damage in our last raid. We limped home and I've been able to repair most of the damage, but our weapons systems are shot. I hoped Martouf would be able to help."

"Obviously he couldn't. So, is anyone else who is going to be watching me more fun than you are?"

"Probably not. The Colonel picked people who'd have no qualms about shooting you."

"That's a little harsh," she commented, but wasn't offended.

Vala got up and wandered around the room poking at things. There were a couple more white cabinets like the one Sam had taken food out of, a cooking device and various closed boxes. Vala peered at some of the contents of them but they contained only nondescript and dull coloured packets. Vala dropped back down onto one of the crates and sighed dramatically.

"I'm bored!"

"Tough shit"

"Okay, I'll go to bed. At least it will help the time pass, especially if you wanted to join me," Vala looked hopefully, but without any expectation of an answer, towards Sam, who got up from the crate and led the way into the room where all the others, bar Teal'c, seemed to be. They were chattering in low voices, but stopped when Sam entered with Vala as all eyes turned towards her. Sam indicated an empty bunk to Vala and sat down nearby when Vala removed her boots, dropped onto it and looked around. Everyone else turned from them and continued getting ready for bed. The room wouldn't win any prizes for comfort. There were five sets of steel framed bunk beds in the room that appeared to be bolted to the floor and walls and the bunks were narrow. Vala had clearly been given a bunk on the 'girls side' as the smaller sized boots next to the bed indicated and her suspicions were confirmed when Doctor Janet Fraiser walked into the room and vaulted up onto the bunk above Vala with practised ease. The guys had their own spaces within the small room and Vala took in the details of the pile of books spilling out from underneath Daniel Jackson's bed, the wrench leaning against the side of Sergeant Siler's, the bunk belonging to Colonel Jack O'Neill with the one above him empty and Teal'c's exceptionally neatly made, but currently unoccupied, bunk. The room was crowded and full of the smell of people. Vala watched Doctor Janet Fraiser's legs swing above her for a minute or so and then they were up and out of sight. A hand reached down from the bunk and two fingers were pressed gently to the top of Sam's head. Sam smiled fondly and closed her eyes at the gesture and it was the first unguarded moment that Vala had seen from anyone on this ship. The hand withdrew and Vala finally lay down on the bunk, pulled the blanket up to her shoulders and fidgeted awkwardly. She kept her gaze on Sam who was now glaring at her.

"Sure you don't fancy joining me?"

"Go to sleep Vala"

Vala grinned to herself and, after a few minutes, she did indeed fall lightly asleep.

Next: Wheeling And Dealing