* * *

Jack stood behind Janet, who pointed a handgun at a row of targets. His hands covered her wrists. He stretched around her, enveloping her completely, twice her size. He said, "You want to squeeze the trigger. Not pull."

"I know how to shoot a gun, Colonel," she said.

"And I know how to be a man. But sometimes it's nice to practice." He nudged her.

Sam sprawled in the grass behind them. Daniel and Teal'c stood beside her. Daniel folded his arms, and said, "I bet she hits them all."

"I'm not taking that bet. Of course she will," Sam said.

Teal'c said, "Double. Or nothing."

Daniel held out his fist. Teal'c tapped it.

Sam shook her head.

The first shot went off. Wide. They heard the soft impact it made with the dirt beyond the target stand. The canteens, bottled water, and snack bars they'd stood up on a saw horse at 30 feet remained dormant.

Daniel glanced at Teal'c.

Teal'c said, "It is not her aim I question. It is his."

"Hey," Jack said.

"How's your manhood now, Colonel?" Sam called out to him.

"Think you can do better?"

Sam got to her feet.

Jack released Janet and walked over to the men. He shook his head. "Mathematician, pilot, motorcycle repairwoman. It's just unfair that she can shoot, too."

Teal'c inclined his head.

Sam wrapped her arms around Janet and bent so that her head was level with Janet's ear. "Be one with the gun," she said. "Think of it as one fluid extension of your body. You are reaching out to the canteen."

"Go, go, Gadget," Janet said. She squeezed the trigger. A canteen flew off the ledge.

"Oh, sure, if you're going to be all womanly about it," Jack said, scoffing. "Shoot from the womb."

Janet shrugged off Sam's grip, and fired repeatedly with the semiautomatic. Another canteen was slain. Power bar. Power bar. Bottled water spilling onto the dirt. She missed the last power bar, and sighed.

Daniel clapped.

Janet glanced over her shoulder and grinned. Teal'c bowed to her. She bowed back.

"Beer?" Jack suggested.

* * *

The fire crackled in front of them, sending orange sparks into the darkness. Daniel rolled his head back and looked at the stars. Constellations he had never seen before greeted him. He tried to picture himself as a native, traced the dots, made up stories. When he wondered what the natives would call themselves, he got stymied, and looked back at the fire.

Jack melted a marshmallow on a stick. He said, "Beautiful world. What are the odds, Carter, of finding something so perfect for the Alpha Site? No ruins, no signs of previous civilizations, no Goa'uld. I'm not even sure why there's a Stargate."

"Maybe one of the moons is habited, but can't support the energy required for a Stargate. Or there was massive climate change at some point in the last thousand years. We'll know more when we take the soil samples back and examine the aerial surveys."

"But the odds, Carter. The odds."

"Infinite?" She said, and grinned at him.

Jack picked up the gooey marshmallow with his fingers and glared at her.

"Okay, okay. Since there are a number of worlds habited, that means the uninhabited ones are less than infinite. Not to mention the number of planets that aren't habitable at all, or habitable by us, with our yearning desire for nitrogen."

"Infinite minus n?" He traced an imaginary figure eight for infinity with his finger.

Sam blinked.

Jack cleared his throat, and said, "Magnets."

Teal'c stood. "I am going to meditate," he said, lifting a burning stick from the fire.

Daniel said, "Maybe we should turn in."

"I'll take first watch," Sam said, picking up her P90.

"I'll help. The night is young," Janet said.

Jack grunted and crawled into his pup tent. Daniel picked up a lantern and scooted to join him.

"You are not reading in bed," Jack said.

"Come on. I'll read to you. What helps you go to sleep faster than Aramaic?" Daniel asked. Their voices grew muffled as Daniel sealed the tent flap.

Janet chuckled. She reached out her hands to the fire.

Sam smiled.

"It was nice of the SGC to spend the millions of dollars to send me through the gate," Janet said.

"It makes sense, from a cost-benefit analysis. You've been through the gate before, but every time helps acclimation. You can't have gate-shock when you're trying to save my life. And, uninhabited world, no alien technology, no ferocious native animals--Something must go wrong. Good to have a doctor along. Especially one who can shoot."

Janet chuckled.

Sam, though, poked at the fire. She bit her lip.

"What is it, Sam?"

"Kind of sucks, doesn't it? That a doctor has to carry a gun. That Daniel--I mean, God, he should be in a library somewhere. I should be in a lab. We shouldn't have to fight for every patch of ground like this."

"But we do," Janet said.

"Is that why you joined the Air Force?"

"That, and they paid for medical school," Janet said. She smiled.

"So would the Army. Or the Navy. Or a federal loan."

"Why did you join, Sam?"

"To fly planes," Sam said.

Janet nodded. She said, "I joined for this." She waved her hand at the land around them, and at the stars. "It's beautiful. Just because I'm an M.D., doesn't mean I didn't dream of going to the stars. I watched every shuttle launch. I watched science fiction and thought about dissecting aliens."

Sam cringed.

"Don't tell me you didn't," Janet said.

"Well, okay. But I really wanted to build spaceships. The rockets I set off almost set half of Colorado Springs on fire. We got lucky," Sam said, "But you didn't know this was out here."

"I had a feeling. There had to be something more. Something like this. Didn't you wonder?"

"Yeah. I had a feeling." Sam said. She grinned. "I had the numbers, too."

Janet laughed and nudged her arm

"We should call this planet 'Sam'," Sam said.

Janet shook her head. "'Samet', at least."

"Stop being imperialist," Daniel called from the tent. "I'm sure the planet already has a name."

Janet wrinkled her nose.

"I saw that," Jack said. "Besides, I'm the leader, I get to pick."

"And?" Janet called.

"I'm thinking."

* * *

"It's perfect," Jack said to Hammond after the team returned to Earth.

"Is there a good fishing hole?" Hammond asked.

Jack looked crestfallen. He said, "<I>Almost</I> perfect. That's why I'm offering it to you, instead of claiming it for my retirement."

Hammond nodded. He said, "Thanks for the tribute, prodigal."

Jack glanced at Daniel and whispered, "What did he say?"

"He said we're going to build a cool military base there. With lots of gun turrets."

"Oh, awesome."

"Awesome," Daniel agreed.

Teal'c and Sam glanced at each other. They grinned, and said in unison, "Awesome."

END