To Great Lengths (1/1)
To Great Lengths
All Ages
Genre: General, Challenge, Humor, Team
Synopsis: No sacrifice is too great for Vala when it comes to saving her teammates!
Notes: Written for the "A Story in Time" challenge at Stargate Legends; the prompt I chose was "is it long enough?" and managed to keep it perfectly innocent.
To Great Lengths
"Well, is it?"
Cam spun around. "Is it what?" he snapped.
"The cord," Vala replied, rolling her eyes. "Is it long enough?"
He blinked and refocused, gaze settling on the bundle of cabling clutched in the former thief's outstretched hands. "Um... wow, that's... yeah, probably. Where did you get that?" Then he noticed the enlarged ends of the cord and sighed. "Never mind."
Taking the "rope" from her hands, he loosened the Velcro strap holding it in its coils, and threw one of the bulbous ends down the steep, rocky slope. "Yo, Jackson!"
Jackson looked up from where he was hanging onto Sam, spotted the dangling lifeline, and silenced the first words to come out of his mouth with a distinct click of his teeth. Shifting his half-conscious teammate over, he caught up the cabling and tied it around the drag-strap of Sam's tactical vest. When he was ready, he gave a tug, and Cam and Vala began to haul the rope upward. It was slow going, and Sam was surely going to be covered in scrapes and bruises by the time she reached the top, but she'd be ready and waiting by the time Teal'c got back with the rescue team.
After several minutes of hard work, the two newer members of SG-1 were able to reach out and grab Sam under the arms, pulling her the rest of the way over the edge and onto the ledge from which she'd originally fallen.
Of course, Cam reflected, she wouldn't have fallen in the first place if Vala hadn't distracted her at a very inopportune moment. And if Sam hadn't fallen, Jackson wouldn't have had to make the less-than-graceful swan-dive off the cliff after her. Fortunately, the archaeologist had caught Sam, and managed to get the two of them tangled into some scrubby bushes part-way down the slope.
It took the work of a few minutes to figure out the knot Jackson had tied-the man must have been a sailor in a past life-but once that was undone, Sam was shifted away from the edge and the cable tossed back to the archaeologist. Jackson lashed the cord to himself, but wisely decided not to take any chances on his own depleted strength and just swung out from the bush to a clear space. As Cam and Vala pulled him up, he half-walked back up the cliff, but made no attempt to try to pull himself along with his hands.
At long last, all members of SG-1 were safely atop the cliff-minus Teal'c, who was surely on his way back by now. Cam spared a few moments to radio to his Jaffa teammate that no one was in danger now, and smiled in relief when he received the big guy's acknowledgement.
"How were you able to retrieve Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
"Funny thing... Vala had something we could use in that over-stuffed pack of hers."
"Extension cord," Jackson clarified, amusement coloring his voice despite the fact he was surely still annoyed with Vala for causing Sam to fall. It was bad enough she'd been playing "catch" with Sam's handheld scanner, but to have tossed it to Sam while they were walking along the edge of a cliff?
"Vala," croaked Sam, just now coming around. "Didn't we explain to you once already that your hair dryer won't work offworld?"