Borealis (Stargate Atlantis FF)

Chapter 12 Wedding day?

Sam was feeling nervous. She was sitting in Jack's and her quarters on the bed looking at the beautiful white dress that the Athosians handmade for her. She wished Jack was there with her but the husband to be was whisked away by Daniel to prepare himself before going to the mainland in completely different Jumper.

"Sam?" Asked Vala impatiently. "Sam?!"

"Oh, sorry." Sam said. "I think I was distracted."

"Listen to me, Sam." Vala sat down beside her. "In an hour you're going to step into one of that shiny little spaceships..."

"Jumpers." Sam corrected. "They're called 'jumpers'."

"... jumpers" Vala said "And you're going to go to the mainland and marry Jack O'Neill. And that's why we need to start preparing you or you'll be very much late. Too much for it to be fasionable."

"I can't start putting on this gown without Teyla, I don't really know what to untie and what is only a decoration."

The dress was really beautiful but the amount of lacing on the back was enormous which, as Teyla declared, was Athosian tradition to teach the new husband patience in learning his new mate. Only about a third of the laces were actually lacing the cloth and the rest was meant to confuse the man. It also did a fair job of confusing everyone who did not know exactly which strings to use.

Teyla came in about forty five minutes before the ceremony and immediately started unlacing the back of the dress.

"I'm sorry" Teyla said. "Kanaan is already on the mainland and Torren started crying... I just hope John is able to keep him calm now."

"It's okay." Samantha assured. "Vala managed to make something with my hair in the meantime."

And she did what she could. Carter had long wavy hair now and there was an opportunity to do something with them. Vala had pinned them on Sam's head in some intricate pattern. Then she added a lot of delicate, little white and red flowers Teyla had brought in the morning.

"And it matches the dress, Vala. I dare say it's a masterpiece." Teyla said honestly.

"Was sure you'd like it." Vala grinned brightly.

The whole situation was positively overwhelming for Sam.

Then, when Teyla was just preparing to help Sam into the dress there was Chuck's voice over the comm. system. "Colonel Carter to the control room, Colonel Carter to the control room immediately."

"What now?" Sam growled and swiftly put back on her base uniform. "Let's go, Teyla," she said, "we need to find out what it is, get it done and be back to prepare on time."

Vala followed them through the door and corridors straight to the control room where Radek and Chuck were frantically tapping away on their keyboards.

"What's happening?" Sam asked worried. She didn't get any answer from the two men. "Will anyone inform me what's wrong with this base?"

"We've got Wraith closing in on the City, ma'am." Informed Amelia looking up from her laptop. "If our estimations are correct they will be here in ten minutes."

"What?" Teyla managed to be vocal. "How did this happen, I thought we were monitoring their activity with our long range sensors!"

"An hour ago they were not close. What happened?" Sam asked. "Why didn't we pick them up earlier?!"

"Because an hour ago they were at least two days away and moving in a different direction." Growled Zelenka.

"How is that possible?" Asked Jack who suddenly reappeared behind Carter.