Stargate SG1: The Seeding
Jack stared at the crack in the earth again and tossed another stone into it. He already knew he wouldn't hear it reach the bottom. Just the receding rattle as it bounced off the sides of the crevice on the way down.
"You know. This planet is twenty-five thousand miles in circumference..."
"Twenty-six." Sam corrected him.
"It's just a little larger than Earth."
"Whatever. But that's an awful lot of miles for one damn crack to appear in. It could have been anywhere. But it chose this precise place. This precise moment..."
"Sometimes things just happen."
"Damn it, Carter. They don't just happen. They happen to us.
You'd think some higher power was playing with us. Getting up in the morning and thinking what can I do today to piss off Jack O'Neill."
Sam smirked.
"I'm sure it's just a coincidence, Sir."
"Yeah. Whatever. But our ride home is down there. Hundreds of feet down a tiny minuscule crack in the earth because Mother Nature just decided to have an earthquake right here on the day we visit."
"Hammond will already know they can't dial this gate address. We missed our check-in time hours ago.
Teal'c and Daniel will come and get us as soon as they can. Either an early test run for the Prometheus or they'll borrow a ship from one of our allies.
We're quite close to Earth relatively speaking."
Sam looked around the fertile lands surrounding them. An open countryside of grasses and small trees in the distance, with plowed fields and healthy crops closer to where they stood.
"It isn't so bad here.
The village is cute and the people seem friendly."
Back at the village the Elder, Aled they called him, had arranged a hut for them.
"It's as it is for everyone here." He explained.
"I don't know how you live in your realm but we are a simple people. This is the best we can offer."
A group of children ran past playing, stopping a moment to look at the strangers in their unusual clothing before continuing with their games.
"Thank you," Sam said.
"It won't be for long. And I'm sure it will be fine."
"The Great eye cannot be recovered. It's far too deep to dig out. A great loss we know its true purpose, and an even greater loss to you now that you can't return home I'm sure."
Jack wondered if he hadn't heard correctly.
"We will be returning home. In a few days, a ship will come by and pick us up."
Aled looked at a loss, as if ship meant nothing to him. More children came by distracting him.
"Soon you'll have children of your own. They're our future. We treasure all births."
Jack lost interest in explaining the obvious. It would only be a few days. Who cared what Aled believed? He'd see it with his own eyes soon enough.
"You think we're together?" Sam asked slightly shocked as Aled's words hit home.
"Of course.
You don't voice it, but you are. I can see the connection in your eyes. Both of you. The Colonel will seed you with fine children."
Sam smirked and avoided Jack's sudden glare.
"Yeah. Whatever.
Carter. Let's go check the accommodation. It's been a long day."
"You're just grumpy because we can't gate home and you have to wait for a ship."
"I'm grumpy because they had cake in the canteen today. Chocolate cake.
And meatloaf."
Jack glanced around the little hut. Just a living area and a bedroom which also served for bathing in a tub by the far wall. The latrines were outside in another tiny hut and shared with two other families. It was all very basic but served the villager's needs.
Given that they had progressed only to a medieval level of technology they were fairly civilized and seemed free of the superstitions and religious conflict that had blighted Earth during that time. But then they were just one village. A small group of people.
Sam tested the bed.
"It's okay." She announced.
"Straw and horse hair, but comfortable."
"You take it. I'll sleep on the floor next door."
"Sir. We can share. It's quite large and a floor isn't exactly comfortable."
"The floor's fine. It's not Iraq. No Camel Spiders crawling around."
Sam winced at the thought.
"Honestly Sir. If you want to share I'm okay with it."
"No Carter. Enjoy the..." He glanced around again "... five-star accommodation."
Sam felt a surge of disappointment as he closed the door behind him leaving her alone. Occasionally, just occasionally they managed to get trapped together somewhere imminent death wasn't their top consideration. For the short while she expected they would be here it could be a paradise. A holiday free of watching eyes. If only Jack would see it that way and take advantage.
"Damn it."
She looked over at the tub. It was evening. Aled had explained that hot water flowed from the stone Fire House at the end of the village for a few hours each evening for bathing, and again in the morning.
She turned the tap on and watched in disappointment as water trickled out at a snail's pace. More frustration.
Jack could wash after a good night's sleep. Perhaps his mood would improve.
Jack remembered Sam's exact words "It isn't so bad here" at the very moment it became bad.
"What do you mean we have to breed?"
Aled explained it again.
"Everyone is allocated their Seed Mate when they pass their fifteenth summer. Our numbers are small since the pandemic and it is our law that everyone shall increase the population.
We aren't sustainable if another pandemic comes. Our people could die out."
Sam looked incredulous.
"Allocated? You're talking about arranged marriages. What about free will?"
Jack waved his hand dismissively.
"That's your business. We aren't stopping. We're just passing through."
Aled smiled.
"You are here to stay and we welcome you into our fold. Talk of leaving is foolish. The Great Eye you came through is gone. Swallowed by the Earth."
"A ship will come for us," Sam explained.
"What is a ship?"
Aled was genuinely at a loss for the meaning of that word.
"A spaceship. We use them to travel between the stars and planets when there isn't a Stargate available."
The concept meant.
"Fanciful nonsense.
Please. Abide by our laws. You are suited together. You will have many strong children."
Sam blushed and she noted Jack avoided her gaze when she looked at him.
Aled continued.
"Seeding is important to our survival. We need new offspring from strong stock.
I will come by each morning as I do with the other newly matched. If you persist with denying your nature I will bring the Witch to check for the truth.
Tomorrow you will help with the work. You are our guests but we also need you to assist for the good of all of us."
Jack's glare remained.
"Fine. Happy to help.
While we're here."
Aled turned away and with his two assistants following he continued on his tour of the village.
"Witch?" Jack enquired.
"No idea Sir." Sam shrugged her shoulders.
Jack rolled his eyes. "One night we've been here and the, and I quote 'the cute little village' is turning into a scene from Hansel and Gretel."
Jack was good to his word, helping in the fields. He was no farmer but he could wield a spade. And he could keep going even in the warmth of mid-day. Special Forces training had hardened him to cope adequately with extremes of weather. Warm as it was this planet wasn't desert conditions. Twenty-five degrees wasn't even taxing as he helped clear the new field of large stones and old roots so that the horses could plow it.
Sam was a woman. On this world, it meant respect and equality of voice. But it also meant she couldn't do man's work. Gender roles were strictly segregated. Instead, she was trapped in the village looking for where she could be useful. Weaving and sowing were out of the question and there was little call for an astrophysicist. There were no schools to teach in, just education as they went along with the older children helping the adults.
So Sam found herself in the communal kitchen where they prepared all the village meals. A strictly vegetarian diet that involved preparing and cooking the produce from the fields.
All the women stayed in the village looking after the children while working at what they could. Even new mothers were peeling root vegetables or sowing cloths together for clothing while a child suckled at a breast.
There were a lot of children she noted.
"How's it going?" Sam asked serving up soup to Jack as he passed her in the line.
"Oh, you know."
His eyes were drawn to Sam's locally made tunic where it hung loose exposing her cleavage. As she ladled his food into the bowl he saw her tits wobble unrestrained from any underwear. A gently moving river of sweet pale flesh. He pulled his eyes away before she noticed and looked at the thick creamy pea-colored fluid in the bowl.
"Is there cake?"
"Afraid not Sir."
"Oh well."
He glanced at the queue building behind him.
"Better get on.
Lots to do. Plowing. Planting. That sort of thing."
"See you tonight, Sir."
She gave him a smile as he moved away to sit with his meal and turned her attention to the next laborer.
"I found out what the pandemic was," Sam said.
"Apparently, they get flu and colds just like we do on Earth in the cooler months. A few years ago was a particularly bad season. Probably like the Spanish flu. It wiped their population in half.
And as far as they know this is the only village on the planet so being down to just a couple of hundred people as they were was a serious issue. That's why they consider having children so important."
Jack pulled his boots off and rubbed his feet.
"Perhaps we'll send them medicines as a thank you. The Prometheus can swing by once it's in full service.
That's if the wicked witch doesn't eat us up for being naughty children."
"What do you think this witch business is about?
There's no sense they're superstitious. So a witch?"
