If All Else Fails - Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Drifting
“We’d been making good time up to the point we had the leak. At that point, we were close to Pegasus, and our only option was to make the best possible speed for Atlantis and hope to find a planet that would allow us to replenish our food stores. Honestly, none of us thought we’d make it. You don’t know what it’s like to be stuck on a ship that’s likely to be your coffin, with the people you love most in the world, knowing that they’re going to die right along with you. It leaves a mark.”
~Interview with Vala Mal Doran
Daniel slumped in the co-pilot’s seat, his feet propped up on the console. “This sucks.”
“You’re telling me,” Mitchell replied. He hit the intercom. “Ladies? How’s it going?”
The intercom buzzed a moment later. “We don’t have the parts to make a complete repair.” Sam’s voice was apologetic. “Sorry, Cam. I’ll get you all the speed I can, but we’re not going to get the hyperdrive engine back.”
Mitchell swore, but said, “All right. Do what you can.”
“Where does that put us?” Daniel asked quietly once the intercom was off.
Mitchell shook his head. “We’ll hit the edge of Pegasus in four, maybe five days.”
Daniel rubbed his face. “If we don’t find a planet with some kind of food as soon as we hit Pegasus, we’re going to be fucked, and our water supply isn’t going to last much longer.” He swore. “If those damn smugglers had been a little more inclined towards cleaning, we’d still have most of our food supplies. Fucking fungus.”
“I know,” Cam said wearily. “We’ve all kicked ourselves for not catching it sooner.”
“Yeah.” Daniel put his hands over his face. “We need to decide how we’re going to handle it.”
Mitchell shot him a skeptical look. “If you want to try giving our share to the women, I’ll let you be the one to break the news, because they’re going to be pissed as hell.”
Daniel grimaced. “Think I’ll pass, thanks.”
“That was what you were going to suggest.”
“Actually, I was thinking that the pilots among us should probably be the ones to eat regularly.”
Mitchell snorted. “Do you seriously think Vala would let you get away with that? She would probably get Sam to sit on you, and then she’d force-feed you herself.”
Daniel chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
“I know I’m right. I don’t know if you got the memo, but Vala’s pretty much decided you’re hers.”
Daniel couldn’t stop the pleased smile from crossing his face. “Yeah, I think I got that memo.”
“Besides, we’re a team,” Mitchell continued. “We’re not going to sit around and watch you starve. We’ll share and share alike as long as we’ve got food and water. End of story.”
Daniel appreciated that sentiment. He didn’t think he’d be able to eat anything if he knew one of his team members was starving.
“What do you think is happening?” he asked. “Back on earth,” he added to clarify.
Mitchell leaned his head back in the pilot’s seat. “I don’t know.” It was a cop-out, and Daniel was about to say that, but Mitchell kept going. “But if I had to guess, the Trust is moving slowly, consolidating its position. They’ll take over key positions in various world governments, and then they’ll start cracking down.”
“Like that frog in a pot of water,” Daniel observed. “Slowly heating it up so the frog doesn’t know it’s boiling.”
“That’s a myth, you know,” Mitchell replied. “The frog will jump out of the water long before it reaches the boiling point.”
Daniel chuckled, surprised that Mitchell knew that fact. “Same principle applies, though.”
“I guess.”
“Do you think they’ve caught Jack yet?”
“General O’Neill is pretty wily,” Mitchell replied.
Daniel glanced over at him incredulously. “Did you just say ‘wily?’”
“What? It’s true.”
“Nobody uses that word anymore.”
“Well, they should. It’s a great word.”
“You’re thinking of Wile E. Coyote,” Daniel accused.
Mitchell shrugged. “So what if I am?”
Daniel laughed. “Fair enough.”
“If anyone could stay out of the Trust’s clutches, it would be General O’Neill,” Mitchell said, sincerely. “And if they did catch him, Teal’c can get him out. Come on, Daniel. This is General O’Neill and Teal’c. If I could walk again, they can escape.”
“I know. You’re right. Of course, you’re right.” Daniel grinned suddenly, caught by a memory. “You read the mission report from when we blew up Apophis’ ship right before he invaded, didn’t you?”
“I read all the mission reports.”
“You’re insane. You know that, right?”
“I’ve been told,” Mitchell drawled. “Go on.”
“So, everybody thought I was dead,” Daniel said. “If I hadn’t gotten into a sarcophagus, I would have been dead. When Jack and the others showed back up at the SGC, Jack grabbed me and called me ‘space monkey,’”
“Space monkey?”
Daniel shrugged. “What?”
“What?”
“It was a thing,” Daniel said. “The point is, it was impossible odds. We all should have died then. I should have died.”
“And here you are.”
“Here I am,” Daniel agreed.
“Impossible odds.”
“Something like that.”
“An SG-1 specialty.”
“Seems like.”
They grinned at each other, but the amusement quickly faded away.
“I miss him so fucking much,” Daniel admitted hoarsely. “No offense, Cam, but I’ve missed him since he took the promotion and started riding a desk.”
“No offense taken,” Mitchell said quietly. “I don’t blame you. I miss him, and I never got a chance to serve under him.”
Daniel shook his head. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do in Pegasus, you know? I know I’ve wanted to go to Atlantis for years, but-”
“This isn’t the way you wanted to go?”
“No,” Daniel agreed. “I wanted to know that I’d left my team and Earth behind, and intact.”
“So, we get to Atlantis, and then we free Earth,” Cam tossed out. “What else can we do?”
“Nothing,” Daniel replied. “There’s nothing we can do.”
Sam and Vala poked their heads into the cockpit. “Are you two okay?” Sam asked.
“We’re good.” Mitchell twisted in his chair. “We’ll need to take stock and reduce our rations. I want to be conservative, but I don’t want anybody dying of thirst or hunger.”
“Why don’t you look yourself, then?” Vala suggested, coming into the cockpit. “I’ll take your place.”
Mitchell shrugged. “Yeah, why not? Sam?”
“I’m with you,” Sam replied.
Vala took Mitchell’s place in the pilot’s chair, and Daniel leaned back in his own seat as Cam helped Sam out to the engine room. “How bad is it?”
“About as bad as we thought,” Vala replied. “We’re still going to make relatively good time, though.”
“Define ‘relatively good,”” Daniel said.
Vala shrugged. “It means that we won’t starve or die of dehydration before we reach Pegasus, but there’s no guarantee about reaching Atlantis.”
“Fair enough,” Daniel replied. “There never were any guarantees.”
“No, there weren’t.”
Vala reached out, pulling Daniel close for a kiss. Daniel wanted to devour her, to drink her in. He wanted to make love to her, to spend hours discovering her body.
He wanted privacy, and the time to explore, and Daniel knew he would get neither. Mitchell and Sam had been kind to allow him as much time alone with Vala as he’d had.
Instead, Daniel had to settle for his position in the co-pilot’s seat, and Vala straddling him, which wasn’t a bad trade-off as things went.
~~~~~
“I don’t think this ship is big enough for the four of us,” Sam joked as she took inventory of their food stores for the twelfth time.
Cam grinned. “Can you blame them?”
“No, but I think we’d all be happier for a little privacy.”
“I’m hurt,” Cam said, putting his hand over his heart. “You don’t want to spend 24 hours a day every day with your team?”
Sam shot him a look. “And you don’t want to either.”
Cam sat down, leaning up against the bulkhead. “You know what I want? I want a beer-a cheap, American beer-and a football game.”
“I want a hot shower, clean clothes, and a sappy movie,” Sam countered, sitting down next to him.
“Action flick,” Cam said. “Something with Bruce Willis.”
“My bed.”
“Amy Vandenburg’s bed,” Cam said with a grin. “Not that I was ever going to see it.”
“You’re an intergalactic space hero,” Sam teased.
“Who can’t talk about being an intergalactic space hero,” Cam countered. “Or about work, or about why I can’t always return her phone calls because I’m not on the planet. It’s all a moot point now.”
Sam grimaced sympathetically. “Yeah, been there, done that.” She didn’t like to think about Pete, still feeling the sting of regret. Looking back, she wondered if she’d led him on. Sam hadn’t believed that’s what she’d been doing at the time. Sam really had believed that she could make a life with Pete.
In the end, it hadn’t worked out. She’d loved him, but it hadn’t been enough. Sam had realized that her job was always going to take precedence, and Sam couldn’t give it up.
“It helps when you’re both working at the SGC,” Sam offers. “It’s probably a miracle that anybody there manages to have a family.”
“Some of the guys seem to make it work,” Cam pointed out. “But I think most of them got married before they were posted at the SGC, and most of them worked covert ops before.”
“Spouses get used to not getting the whole story,” Sam said. “And then the relationship works, or it doesn’t.”
“What about you and the general?” Cam asked quietly. “Were you making it work?”
“Mostly,” Sam replied. “We were used to not having a relationship at all, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.”
Sam felt unexpected tears burn in her eyes, and a lump formed in her throat. She’d been trying not to think about Jack, trying not to think about all the people she’d left behind.
“Oh, hey,” Cam said, his voice low and helpless. “Hey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Sam shook her head, unable to reply, the words caught in her throat. She felt his hesitation, but he reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
And God, Sam could remember Jack doing this very same thing for her when a mission had gone bad, just hanging onto her, letting her fall apart for a little while until she could pick herself back up again.
Sam felt Cam brush his lips over the top of her head, and he rocked her a bit. She couldn’t hold in the emotions after that. She just let go.
Cam didn’t say a word, and Sam loved him a little bit for that.
When she had calmed down, Cam loosened his grip, but he didn’t let her go, and Sam leaned on him.
“You okay?” Cam finally asked, his own voice a little thick.
“I will be. I think I just needed to get that out of my system.”
“My mom always said there was a lot of value in a good cry,” Cam replied. “Although I never understood what she meant.”
Sam swiped at her wet cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Maybe it’s a woman thing.”
“Maybe.”
She risked a glance at Cam, whose eyes were red. “You okay?”
“I haven’t been back home for more than a week or two since I graduated from the Academy,” Cam said softly. “And other than that first year, I was never really homesick.”
“And you are now.”
“I am now,” he agreed.
Sam rested her head on Cam’s shoulder. “I miss my dad a lot,” she said. “Especially after he joined the Tok’ra, I always counted on him to come riding in to the rescue.”
“I’ve heard the stories,” Cam said. “I’ve read the mission reports.”
“He was something else.” Sam smiled. “It’s strange, but I was closer to him after he left Earth. I certainly saw him more often while he was a host.”
Cam grunted. “I always thought my dad was the biggest damn hero on the planet. He was a pilot, too, you know?”
“I didn’t know.”
“He lost his legs in a crash, and he got back up.”
“So did you.”
“Well, I still had legs to work with.”
“We’ll get back up.”
Cam sighed. “We’ve got enough food for four days, and enough water for a week, and it’s going to take at least five days just to reach the edge of Pegasus.”
“If we each have one meal per day, no more than a cup or two of water, and we limit physical activity, we can make it.”
Cam rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “Okay. Okay. We can eat when we get to Atlantis, right?”
Sam hoped that would be the case. “I guess we’ll find the closest planet with a gate, and then call for help.”
“Piece of cake,” Cam said, but he left his arm around Sam’s shoulders, and she stayed where she was, taking what comfort she could.
~~~~~
Vala yawned widely and checked the sensors again. They should be nearing Pegasus by now, which was a good thing. Gnawing hunger was giving way to a hollow feeling, along with the requisite dizziness and light-headedness. All of them were sleeping as much as they could to conserve energy, and Vala didn’t even mind. She was too hungry, too thirsty, and too tired to be bored.
Alarms started going off all over the ship, and Vala cursed as she watched the readouts. The coolant system had sprung another leak, which did not bode well for their continued ability to fly.
“Sam!” she shouted.
“I know!” Sam called. “I’m on it!”
Daniel joined Vala in the cockpit a moment later. “Cam’s providing another set of hands. I figured I’d just be in the way.”
“Sit down,” Vala ordered. “I’m going to do as much as I can from this end.”
She shut down the engines quickly, hoping that it would be enough. Swearing, she put her hands over her face and felt Daniel’s hands settle on her shoulders, massaging away the tension.
“How far away are we from Pegasus?”
“We’re nearly there,” Vala replied. “But we don’t have a very good map of this area of space. I have no idea if we’re anywhere close to a habitable planet that would give us the resources we need.”
Daniel pressed his lips to the top of her head. “We’ll keep a sharp eye out, then, and we’ll hope that Sam can fix the ship.”
He sat down again, but he reached out and kept his hand linked with hers.
“I hate what’s happened,” Vala said quietly. “But I’m not sorry for this.”
“When we get to Atlantis,” Daniel began, “we’re going to have to decide whether we need one set of quarters or two.”
“Oh, I think we can get by with one set of rooms,” Vala replied with a smile. “We’d just be taking up space otherwise.”
Daniel squeezed her hand. “Okay, then. We’re really doing this.”
“Unless you have a reason not to.”
“No, no reason whatsoever.”
They sat in silence, their fingers still intertwined, and Vala kept an eye on the readouts. She didn’t see any sign that the ship was going to explode, which was always a plus.
Sam appeared in the cockpit some time later, just as Vala was about to doze off. “Okay, I think I’ve got the leak under control. We can’t move very fast, but at least we can move.”
“Let’s just make best speed for the nearest planet with a gate,” Cam added from just behind her. “What kind of map do we have?”
“Not a very good one,” Vala replied. “But the information we do have suggests that there’s a planet with a gate about two days away. There’s no guarantee that there will be any resources on the planet, though, and no guarantee that the gate will work.”
Sam sighed. “There’s another problem. If we land, I can’t promise that we’ll be able to get back off the planet.”
“I thought we were doing okay,” Daniel objected. “We still have the capability to fly.”
“Yeah, through space,” Sam replied. “But we’ll need a lot more power to get off the surface and get out of the gravitational well. Maybe we have it, maybe we don’t. I just don’t know.”
“Do we have a choice?” Vala asked. “There doesn’t appear to be another planet with a gate close enough. And as much as I hate going hungry or thirsty, I’m going to hate watching everyone else die that much more.”
“I’m with Vala,” Daniel stated quietly. “I think we have to take our chances.”
Sam scrubbed her hands over her face. “Okay, well, I’ll do everything I can. If all else fails, we can put out a distress call to Atlantis. Even if the planet’s gate doesn’t work, we can call them. Maybe they can dial in with the supplies we’d need to fix it.”
“It’s a plan,” Cam said. “Vala, you’re at the end of your shift. I’ll take over.”
Daniel rose with her. “I think I’ll get some sleep.”
“Get something to eat, too,” Cam ordered, sliding into the seat that Vala had just vacated.
Vala followed Daniel back into the cargo area, and they ate a few bites. It was hardly satisfying, although she suspected that if they ate more at this point, they would be sick.
She laid down on one of the thin pallets on the floor and watched as Daniel hovered. “Get over here,” she commanded.
Daniel lay down behind her, tugging her close to him. “I just want to be sure that you’re okay with it. You set the pace, Vala.”
She put her hand over his and hummed quietly. “I trust you, Daniel. You forget that we’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Not so long,” Daniel objected.
“Longer than I’ve known just about anyone else,” Vala replied. “Relax. If you do something I don’t like, I won’t hesitate to let you know.”
It wasn’t that easy, of course. Vala knew that the scars from her time in the Goa’uld prison would be around for a long time to come. But she’d known and trusted Daniel, Cameron, and Teal’c before she’d been assaulted. She had Sam’s support and friendship, too.
And if she had the occasional nightmare, it was just part of the job.
“Okay,” Daniel said quietly, continuing to hold her. “Just let me know if you need space.”
“I’d rather you not give me any space,” Vala replied honestly, wanting to know that Daniel didn’t think less of her, wanting the reassurance.
Daniel kissed the back of Vala’s neck. “I can do that.”
Vala dozed restlessly, her dreams fractured and disturbing. She woke once with a start, feeling as though someone was watching her, only to find Sam shaking her awake.
“Sorry,” Sam apologized. “It’s your shift.”
“Okay,” Vala said readily, feeling Daniel stir behind her. “I’ll be right there.”
Her scalp itched, and she wanted a hot shower and a hot meal so badly she could taste it. She had a bite-quite literally-and made her way to the cockpit while Daniel slept on, leaving her pallet for Sam to sleep on.
Cam was piloting the ship when she reached the cockpit, and Vala took the spare seat. “How are we doing?”
“We’re making better time than we thought we would,” Cam replied. “How are you?”
Vala shrugged. “About the same as everyone else, I’d imagine.”
“Tired, hungry, dirty, and needing a break?”
“Precisely.”
Cam glanced over at her. “Vala, I’m sorry you’re stuck like with us, but I’m glad you’re on the team.”
She felt a real smile pull at her lips. “Thank you.”
“Hey, SG-1 is the best of the best. We apparently needed a thief.” Cam’s grin took the sting out of his assessment.
Besides, Vala didn’t mind being called a thief; stealing had saved her life more than once.
Silence reigned after that, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Over the last few weeks, Vala had been forced to get very comfortable with her teammates, and she thought they had all learned how to be content with the quiet.
Cam left at the end of his shift, and Vala moved into the pilot’s seat. Sam appeared a few minutes later and joined her. “Hey. Anything happening?”
Vala shrugged. “Nothing, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at this point.”
Sam laughed. “Yeah, you and me both.”
They didn’t speak much. There wasn’t much to say, which was one of the reasons that Vala felt so listless.
Shift changed again, and Vala changed places with Sam and went to wake up Daniel. She lay down next to Cam, who appeared to be deeply asleep. The shifts changed twice more, and Vala slept as often as possible, wanting to escape hunger and thirst. Three days after the latest coolant leak, Vala woke with her heart thundering in her chest.
“What-”
Daniel was leaning over her. “Vala, hey. We’ve reached the closest planet with a gate. Sam is going to try landing, but she wants everybody to brace themselves.”
“I’m bracing,” Vala replied, sitting up and shifting over to the wall.
Cam was already on his feet. “I’ll help Sam. Daniel, you stay here.”
Daniel hesitated but eventually nodded his agreement. He took a seat next to Vala, his back pushed against the bulkhead.
“What does the planet look like?” Vala asked.
Daniel shrugged. “We’re not sure yet. There was definitely some desert, and maybe some rainforests, but we don’t know where the gate is yet.”
Vala grimaced. “How are we going to find it?”
“Sam has a plan for that.”
“Doesn’t she usually?”
Daniel grinned. “She does. I guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers.”
Vala had heard the expression before, and she responded by holding up a hand and doing just that.
The ship began to buck underneath them, and they both spread their arms, staying flush against the bulkhead, their feet braced against the deck.
“We’re in for a bumpy ride!” Cam shouted from the cockpit. “Hang on!”
Vala exchanged a look with Daniel, and then closed her eyes.
Re-entry into the atmosphere was often turbulent, but this landing was worse than any other Vala had experienced.
She held on for dear life until the ship shuddered to a halt, and she heard Sam call out, “Okay, we’re good! We’re in one piece!”
“Do we know where the gate is?” Daniel asked.
“Should be just outside,” Cam responded. “The atmosphere is breathable, but it’s hot out there, so be ready for it.”
The cargo bay doors opened, and Vala felt the blast of heat. It felt like opening the door of an oven.
She and Daniel stepped outside, blinking under the bright, hot sun, the air gritty with blowing sand. “I don’t know that we’re going to find many resources here,” Daniel murmured.
“Then I guess we’d better get off this planet as soon as we can,” Vala replied. “Because we’re in serious trouble if we don’t.”
~~~~~
Days of darkness and silence had given way to bright, relentless lights and random alarms. Every time Jack began to relax enough to maybe get some sleep, a loud alarm sounded, and he was startled fully awake, his heart racing.
Although he had no idea how much time had passed, it felt like months: months of complete darkness, and months of blinding light and blaring sound. Just when Jack had begun to think that the light and sound would go on forever, the door of his cell swung open to admit a couple of big guys in suits.
Jack was weak from lack of sleep and decent food, and he offered little resistance as they dragged him out. The beating they gave him was expected, even comforting in a way. Jack could deal with this kind of torture; he had been beaten before. He’d been starved before.
What he feared most was that they would break down his will through lack of sleep, and food, and human contact, until he begged to tell everything he knew.
Jack’s only comfort was that he’d told the SGC teams to move on as soon as they could, so any intel he gave would be old news.
But there was no way he was giving up any information before he had to.
The men dumped Jack back in his cell, where the bright lights and blaring alarms continued. Jack curled up around his broken ribs, spitting out blood, and closed his eyes. He remembered an afternoon on the dock at his cabin with Teal’c, throwing his line in the water and trying to explain the joys of fishing-without catching any fish.
Teal’c never had understood, but then no one on his team had.
Well, maybe Sam at the end, but Jack suspected that her enthusiasm had more to do with spending time with him and getting a tan.
Jack was on the receiving end of two more beatings. The third resulted in a punctured lung and being dumped in a sarcophagus.
When he woke up again, he was back in his cell, and it was dark again. Jack was grateful for the respite, but he knew it wouldn’t last long. He faced a never-ending cycle of different kinds of torture until he was killed, or was allowed to die from his injuries.
Another cycle of darkness and silence followed, and another cycle of bright lights and blaring sound. They took him out for another torture session, although this time they used fire and knives, of which Jack was not a fan.
In between sessions, Jack was fed thin gruel, which he ate because there was no other choice. There was a rhythm to it-darkness and light, silence and sound, hunger and satisfaction.
He had no idea how long he’d been in the cell, or how long they’d been trying to get information out of him. He just knew that it was his duty to resist for as long as he could, to find a place in his mind that was safe from his interrogators.
Jack kept fighting because he knew nothing else.
He fought the soldiers when they came for him again, but they overpowered him easily, weakened as he was.
This beating was worse than the ones that came before, but they returned Jack to his cell without learning anything.
Jack curled up in a corner of his cell, feeling as though he didn’t have a lot of time before he gave up the ghost.
He knew how to end his own life, even with the slim resources left to him, but he wasn’t quite ready to go there yet.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut against the bright lights. He hated the lights more than the darkness at this point. At least he could get some sleep when his cell was dark.
When the door slid open, Jack curled up even tighter, keeping his eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“General O’Neill, we must hurry.”
Jack recognized Teal’c’s voice, but he’d been expected the hallucinations to start, so he stayed right where he was. “You’re a figment of my imagination; go away.”
“I am not. O’Neill, can you walk?” The hand on Jack’s arm was large, warm, and gentle, and Jack cracked a swollen eye to peer at him. “We must hurry.”
“T?” Jack croaked. “What are you doing here?”
“I believe you would call us the cavalry. Can you walk?” Teal’c asked urgently.
Jack grunted. “I don’t know. Help me up.”
Teal’c pulled Jack to his feet, but Jack’s knees buckled almost immediately. Teal’c put his arm around Jack’s waist, holding him in place.
“Is the rest of the team with you?” Jack asked.
“We went our separate ways. I would not leave my people.”
“Should have known,” Jack grunted. “Why are you here, then?”
“I could not leave my friend in enemy hands,” Teal’c replied.
Jack blinked as they approached a young man who was clearly acting as a lookout. Jack’s vision wasn’t entirely clear, but he thought he recognized his clone. “Teal’c? What’s he doing here?”
“I’m saving your ass,” the clone replied. “Or maybe I should say saving my own ass.”
Jack grunted. He hated it when a double popped up, whether it was a clone or a robot. “Where’d you find him?”
“That’s a story for another time,” Teal’c replied. “Jon?”
“We’re in the clear,” the clone said.
“Jon?” Jack croaked.
Jon glared at him. “Well, I had to be called something, and ‘Jack’ was confusing. So, yeah, I’m Jon.”
“You got a ship, T?” Jack asked. “Because I don’t think I’m up for a long walk.”
“I always come prepared,” Teal’c intoned. “But we must hurry.”
Teal’c half-carried, half-dragged Jack down several long corridors. Jack’s vision kept graying out from the pain, but he noticed that the two times they ran into resistance, Jon moved with Jack’s own skills, and with the speed and strength of youth.
He’d be about eighteen now, Jack thought. They hadn’t kept in touch, so Jack had no idea what had happened to him in the last couple of years, or why he’d gone along with this little adventure.
They met more resistance as they neared the exit, and Teal’c gripped Jack tighter with one hand while firing a zat with the other.
“Go!” Jon shouted. “I’ll cover your six. Get the old man on board.”
Teal’c didn’t argue, and Jack was in far too much pain to protest the appellation. Teal’c manhandled Jack out of the doors, and across what looked like a parade ground on a military base. Halfway across, an al’kesh appeared before them, the ship shimmering as it dropped the cloak.
Jon ran on board behind them a moment later, firing his zat behind him. “Go, go, go!”
The engines whined to life under Jack’s feet, and Teal’c lowered Jack gently to the deck of the cargo bay.
“Go help Bra’tac,” Jon said. “Cassie and I will take care of O’Neill.”
“Cassie?” Jack called.
“I’m right here, Jack,” Cassie said, putting a hand on his forehead. “You look like shit.”
“Brace yourselves!” Jack recognized Master Bra’tac’s voice. “We’re going to have to outmaneuver the security forces.”
“Jon, let’s get him stretched out,” Cassie said. “We’ll brace him on either side. Hang tight, Jack.”
Jack still wasn’t sure this was real. It might be a hallucination. He didn’t think there was a better explanation for what he was seeing.
Jack groaned as they helped him stretch out, then they sat on either side, anchoring him in place as the ship took off and maneuvered through Earth’s atmosphere. Eventually, the flight path evened out, and Jack felt Cassie and Jon relax on either side of him.
“Jon, quick, grab the first aid kit. We’ll do what we can right now,” Cassie ordered.
“You remind me of your mom,” Jack rasped out. “She used to order everyone around in just that tone of voice.”
Cassie blinked rapidly, her smile tremulous but real. “Thank you. But Jack? It might be better if you passed out now. This is going to hurt like hell.”
“Yeah, I figured. I’ll do my best,” Jack replied, wishing it were that easy, and he could just pass out.
And then Cassie started to run her hands over his ribs, and the resulting pain sent him under.
~~~~~
“Okay, I have good news and bad news,” Sam announced as she reentered the ship, pausing to shake the sand out of her clothing.
Cam glanced at Jackson, who pulled a face. “Let’s have the bad news first,” Cam said.
“The bad news is that the DHD isn’t working, probably because it hasn’t been used in a hundred years and there’s a bunch of sand and dust gumming up the works,” Sam replied.
Vala sighed. “And the good news?”
“Once I get everything cleaned off, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work,” Sam replied, flopping down on the floor.
“How long is that going to take?” Cam asked.
Sam shrugged. “Normally, a couple of days, but we’re short on food, water, and sleep. It’s going to take me longer than it would if I were in peak condition.”
“Vala? Can you help her?” Cam asked.
“I can do whatever you like to get us off this rock,” Vala replied, jumping to her feet. “Just point me in the right direction.”
“We need food and water, if you can find it,” Sam pointed out. “We should forage if possible.”
“Jackson and I will go,” Cam said. “You two see what you can do to fix the DHD. That’s our only chance to get off the planet right now.”
The conditions weren’t ideal to go hunting. He and Jackson were both sleep-deprived and weak from more than a week of short rations. They weren’t at death’s door, but they weren’t at their best either.
Still, Sam was right; they needed food and water. He and Jackson clipped on their weapons-zats and stunners-and checked their knives. They put on their sunglasses, and walked out into the desert wind.
“How are we supposed to find food in this?” Jackson asked as they headed out into the desert. “For that matter, how are we supposed to figure out where the ship is once we get out of shouting distance?”
“That’s what a compass is for, Jackson,” Cam replied, pulling out his. “We’re going to be fine.”
“Now you know something is going to go wrong,” Jackson shot back. “You’ve just jinxed us.”
Cam sighed. “There’s no such thing as a jinx.”
“I know better,” Jackson replied. “Trust me, something is going to go wrong now.”
“Let’s just focus on finding something to eat, and finding water.”
“Where? There’s nothing but sand as far as the eye can see.”
“Where’s your positive attitude?” Cam asked.
“I think I left it back in Cheyenne Mountain,” Jackson replied dryly.
Cam shrugged. “We’ll do our best. If we can’t find anything, at least we’ll know we’ve tried.”
“You actually believe that, don’t you?”
“My eternal optimism is a personality flaw,” Cam admitted.
The earth under their feet was hard and cracked, the gusting wind throwing up dust devils. Cam took some comfort in the fact that there was a little scrub growing. Scrub meant that they might find animal life, insects, maybe even cactus or other succulents, so there was at least a chance they’d find water.
Cam had taken a couple of courses on how to survive in desert terrain-just like he’d learned a few things about surviving in the forest, or in the mountains, or if he ejected over the ocean.
“We’ll probably want to see if we can find some water, or some better scrub,” Cam said. “And then we’re going to have to wait for something to show its head.”
“We’ve got succulents,” Cam said, pulling out his knife and beginning to hack at one of the arms. “There’s not a lot of liquid in here, but it’s better than nothing.”
“How are you going to carry that?” Jackson asked.
Cam grimaced. “Very carefully.” He unbuckled the strap that held his knife sheath and looped it around the cut end and pulled it tight. “Okay, let’s find some food and then head back to the ship.”
“I can see burrows,” Jackson said, pointing.
“Rodents,” Cam murmured. “We’ll have to get a few to make it worth our while.”
After another fifteen minutes of serious searching, they found a spot with a high concentration of holes, and they hunkered down several yards apart. Cam held his zat in a loose grip, slipping into that watchful state that took in the scenery without focusing too hard on any one particular thing.
He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and Cam fired without consciously aiming. Blue light enveloped the creature, which looked a bit like a meerkat, and Cam shot it again for a clean kill.
Cam snagged the body without a word and settled back onto his haunches. Daniel shot the next one, and Cam began to think that they might have a chance at a decent meal that night, even if the cactus wouldn’t give them much in the way of water.
They managed to shoot three more, and then, just as Cam was about to kill his third animal, he felt a sting in his right arm. The pain was unexpected, and he let out an involuntary yelp, sending his quarry scurrying back into its burrow.
“Cam?” Jackson called. “You okay?”
“Something bit me,” Cam admitted. He looked around, seeing something vaguely scorpion-like digging down into the ground out of sight. “I don’t know what it was.”
“Show me,” Jackson ordered.
Cam found himself obeying. He winced when he saw the red, raised welt on his right forearm, and he could tell that it was already swelling.
“We need to get back to the ship,” Jackson insisted. “We’ve got enough meat for tonight, and I’m not going to carry you.”
“I’m fine,” Cam insisted.
Jackson glared at him. “I spent some time in desert climates, too, you know. You might feel okay right now, but chances are you’re going to be sicker than a dog pretty soon. So just fucking listen to me, and don’t be such a fucking hero, Cam.”
“Okay, okay,” Cam replied, holding up his hands in surrender at Jackson’s fierce tone. “You got it. We’ll go back to the ship.”
“No way am I losing you,” Jackson muttered. “The women would kill me.”
Cam grunted as Jackson heaved him up to his feet. His arm was throbbing in time to the beat of his heart, and he was already beginning to feel dizzy.
“Daniel, I think this is going to get bad,” Cam said quietly.
Jackson looked at him. “Yeah. I told you so.”
“I know you did.”
“Are you going to make it back?” Jackson asked.
Cam managed a tight smile. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
Chapter 9
“We’d been making good time up to the point we had the leak. At that point, we were close to Pegasus, and our only option was to make the best possible speed for Atlantis and hope to find a planet that would allow us to replenish our food stores. Honestly, none of us thought we’d make it. You don’t know what it’s like to be stuck on a ship that’s likely to be your coffin, with the people you love most in the world, knowing that they’re going to die right along with you. It leaves a mark.”
~Interview with Vala Mal Doran
Daniel slumped in the co-pilot’s seat, his feet propped up on the console. “This sucks.”
“You’re telling me,” Mitchell replied. He hit the intercom. “Ladies? How’s it going?”
The intercom buzzed a moment later. “We don’t have the parts to make a complete repair.” Sam’s voice was apologetic. “Sorry, Cam. I’ll get you all the speed I can, but we’re not going to get the hyperdrive engine back.”
Mitchell swore, but said, “All right. Do what you can.”
“Where does that put us?” Daniel asked quietly once the intercom was off.
Mitchell shook his head. “We’ll hit the edge of Pegasus in four, maybe five days.”
Daniel rubbed his face. “If we don’t find a planet with some kind of food as soon as we hit Pegasus, we’re going to be fucked, and our water supply isn’t going to last much longer.” He swore. “If those damn smugglers had been a little more inclined towards cleaning, we’d still have most of our food supplies. Fucking fungus.”
“I know,” Cam said wearily. “We’ve all kicked ourselves for not catching it sooner.”
“Yeah.” Daniel put his hands over his face. “We need to decide how we’re going to handle it.”
Mitchell shot him a skeptical look. “If you want to try giving our share to the women, I’ll let you be the one to break the news, because they’re going to be pissed as hell.”
Daniel grimaced. “Think I’ll pass, thanks.”
“That was what you were going to suggest.”
“Actually, I was thinking that the pilots among us should probably be the ones to eat regularly.”
Mitchell snorted. “Do you seriously think Vala would let you get away with that? She would probably get Sam to sit on you, and then she’d force-feed you herself.”
Daniel chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
“I know I’m right. I don’t know if you got the memo, but Vala’s pretty much decided you’re hers.”
Daniel couldn’t stop the pleased smile from crossing his face. “Yeah, I think I got that memo.”
“Besides, we’re a team,” Mitchell continued. “We’re not going to sit around and watch you starve. We’ll share and share alike as long as we’ve got food and water. End of story.”
Daniel appreciated that sentiment. He didn’t think he’d be able to eat anything if he knew one of his team members was starving.
“What do you think is happening?” he asked. “Back on earth,” he added to clarify.
Mitchell leaned his head back in the pilot’s seat. “I don’t know.” It was a cop-out, and Daniel was about to say that, but Mitchell kept going. “But if I had to guess, the Trust is moving slowly, consolidating its position. They’ll take over key positions in various world governments, and then they’ll start cracking down.”
“Like that frog in a pot of water,” Daniel observed. “Slowly heating it up so the frog doesn’t know it’s boiling.”
“That’s a myth, you know,” Mitchell replied. “The frog will jump out of the water long before it reaches the boiling point.”
Daniel chuckled, surprised that Mitchell knew that fact. “Same principle applies, though.”
“I guess.”
“Do you think they’ve caught Jack yet?”
“General O’Neill is pretty wily,” Mitchell replied.
Daniel glanced over at him incredulously. “Did you just say ‘wily?’”
“What? It’s true.”
“Nobody uses that word anymore.”
“Well, they should. It’s a great word.”
“You’re thinking of Wile E. Coyote,” Daniel accused.
Mitchell shrugged. “So what if I am?”
Daniel laughed. “Fair enough.”
“If anyone could stay out of the Trust’s clutches, it would be General O’Neill,” Mitchell said, sincerely. “And if they did catch him, Teal’c can get him out. Come on, Daniel. This is General O’Neill and Teal’c. If I could walk again, they can escape.”
“I know. You’re right. Of course, you’re right.” Daniel grinned suddenly, caught by a memory. “You read the mission report from when we blew up Apophis’ ship right before he invaded, didn’t you?”
“I read all the mission reports.”
“You’re insane. You know that, right?”
“I’ve been told,” Mitchell drawled. “Go on.”
“So, everybody thought I was dead,” Daniel said. “If I hadn’t gotten into a sarcophagus, I would have been dead. When Jack and the others showed back up at the SGC, Jack grabbed me and called me ‘space monkey,’”
“Space monkey?”
Daniel shrugged. “What?”
“What?”
“It was a thing,” Daniel said. “The point is, it was impossible odds. We all should have died then. I should have died.”
“And here you are.”
“Here I am,” Daniel agreed.
“Impossible odds.”
“Something like that.”
“An SG-1 specialty.”
“Seems like.”
They grinned at each other, but the amusement quickly faded away.
“I miss him so fucking much,” Daniel admitted hoarsely. “No offense, Cam, but I’ve missed him since he took the promotion and started riding a desk.”
“No offense taken,” Mitchell said quietly. “I don’t blame you. I miss him, and I never got a chance to serve under him.”
Daniel shook his head. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do in Pegasus, you know? I know I’ve wanted to go to Atlantis for years, but-”
“This isn’t the way you wanted to go?”
“No,” Daniel agreed. “I wanted to know that I’d left my team and Earth behind, and intact.”
“So, we get to Atlantis, and then we free Earth,” Cam tossed out. “What else can we do?”
“Nothing,” Daniel replied. “There’s nothing we can do.”
Sam and Vala poked their heads into the cockpit. “Are you two okay?” Sam asked.
“We’re good.” Mitchell twisted in his chair. “We’ll need to take stock and reduce our rations. I want to be conservative, but I don’t want anybody dying of thirst or hunger.”
“Why don’t you look yourself, then?” Vala suggested, coming into the cockpit. “I’ll take your place.”
Mitchell shrugged. “Yeah, why not? Sam?”
“I’m with you,” Sam replied.
Vala took Mitchell’s place in the pilot’s chair, and Daniel leaned back in his own seat as Cam helped Sam out to the engine room. “How bad is it?”
“About as bad as we thought,” Vala replied. “We’re still going to make relatively good time, though.”
“Define ‘relatively good,”” Daniel said.
Vala shrugged. “It means that we won’t starve or die of dehydration before we reach Pegasus, but there’s no guarantee about reaching Atlantis.”
“Fair enough,” Daniel replied. “There never were any guarantees.”
“No, there weren’t.”
Vala reached out, pulling Daniel close for a kiss. Daniel wanted to devour her, to drink her in. He wanted to make love to her, to spend hours discovering her body.
He wanted privacy, and the time to explore, and Daniel knew he would get neither. Mitchell and Sam had been kind to allow him as much time alone with Vala as he’d had.
Instead, Daniel had to settle for his position in the co-pilot’s seat, and Vala straddling him, which wasn’t a bad trade-off as things went.
~~~~~
“I don’t think this ship is big enough for the four of us,” Sam joked as she took inventory of their food stores for the twelfth time.
Cam grinned. “Can you blame them?”
“No, but I think we’d all be happier for a little privacy.”
“I’m hurt,” Cam said, putting his hand over his heart. “You don’t want to spend 24 hours a day every day with your team?”
Sam shot him a look. “And you don’t want to either.”
Cam sat down, leaning up against the bulkhead. “You know what I want? I want a beer-a cheap, American beer-and a football game.”
“I want a hot shower, clean clothes, and a sappy movie,” Sam countered, sitting down next to him.
“Action flick,” Cam said. “Something with Bruce Willis.”
“My bed.”
“Amy Vandenburg’s bed,” Cam said with a grin. “Not that I was ever going to see it.”
“You’re an intergalactic space hero,” Sam teased.
“Who can’t talk about being an intergalactic space hero,” Cam countered. “Or about work, or about why I can’t always return her phone calls because I’m not on the planet. It’s all a moot point now.”
Sam grimaced sympathetically. “Yeah, been there, done that.” She didn’t like to think about Pete, still feeling the sting of regret. Looking back, she wondered if she’d led him on. Sam hadn’t believed that’s what she’d been doing at the time. Sam really had believed that she could make a life with Pete.
In the end, it hadn’t worked out. She’d loved him, but it hadn’t been enough. Sam had realized that her job was always going to take precedence, and Sam couldn’t give it up.
“It helps when you’re both working at the SGC,” Sam offers. “It’s probably a miracle that anybody there manages to have a family.”
“Some of the guys seem to make it work,” Cam pointed out. “But I think most of them got married before they were posted at the SGC, and most of them worked covert ops before.”
“Spouses get used to not getting the whole story,” Sam said. “And then the relationship works, or it doesn’t.”
“What about you and the general?” Cam asked quietly. “Were you making it work?”
“Mostly,” Sam replied. “We were used to not having a relationship at all, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.”
Sam felt unexpected tears burn in her eyes, and a lump formed in her throat. She’d been trying not to think about Jack, trying not to think about all the people she’d left behind.
“Oh, hey,” Cam said, his voice low and helpless. “Hey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Sam shook her head, unable to reply, the words caught in her throat. She felt his hesitation, but he reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
And God, Sam could remember Jack doing this very same thing for her when a mission had gone bad, just hanging onto her, letting her fall apart for a little while until she could pick herself back up again.
Sam felt Cam brush his lips over the top of her head, and he rocked her a bit. She couldn’t hold in the emotions after that. She just let go.
Cam didn’t say a word, and Sam loved him a little bit for that.
When she had calmed down, Cam loosened his grip, but he didn’t let her go, and Sam leaned on him.
“You okay?” Cam finally asked, his own voice a little thick.
“I will be. I think I just needed to get that out of my system.”
“My mom always said there was a lot of value in a good cry,” Cam replied. “Although I never understood what she meant.”
Sam swiped at her wet cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Maybe it’s a woman thing.”
“Maybe.”
She risked a glance at Cam, whose eyes were red. “You okay?”
“I haven’t been back home for more than a week or two since I graduated from the Academy,” Cam said softly. “And other than that first year, I was never really homesick.”
“And you are now.”
“I am now,” he agreed.
Sam rested her head on Cam’s shoulder. “I miss my dad a lot,” she said. “Especially after he joined the Tok’ra, I always counted on him to come riding in to the rescue.”
“I’ve heard the stories,” Cam said. “I’ve read the mission reports.”
“He was something else.” Sam smiled. “It’s strange, but I was closer to him after he left Earth. I certainly saw him more often while he was a host.”
Cam grunted. “I always thought my dad was the biggest damn hero on the planet. He was a pilot, too, you know?”
“I didn’t know.”
“He lost his legs in a crash, and he got back up.”
“So did you.”
“Well, I still had legs to work with.”
“We’ll get back up.”
Cam sighed. “We’ve got enough food for four days, and enough water for a week, and it’s going to take at least five days just to reach the edge of Pegasus.”
“If we each have one meal per day, no more than a cup or two of water, and we limit physical activity, we can make it.”
Cam rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “Okay. Okay. We can eat when we get to Atlantis, right?”
Sam hoped that would be the case. “I guess we’ll find the closest planet with a gate, and then call for help.”
“Piece of cake,” Cam said, but he left his arm around Sam’s shoulders, and she stayed where she was, taking what comfort she could.
~~~~~
Vala yawned widely and checked the sensors again. They should be nearing Pegasus by now, which was a good thing. Gnawing hunger was giving way to a hollow feeling, along with the requisite dizziness and light-headedness. All of them were sleeping as much as they could to conserve energy, and Vala didn’t even mind. She was too hungry, too thirsty, and too tired to be bored.
Alarms started going off all over the ship, and Vala cursed as she watched the readouts. The coolant system had sprung another leak, which did not bode well for their continued ability to fly.
“Sam!” she shouted.
“I know!” Sam called. “I’m on it!”
Daniel joined Vala in the cockpit a moment later. “Cam’s providing another set of hands. I figured I’d just be in the way.”
“Sit down,” Vala ordered. “I’m going to do as much as I can from this end.”
She shut down the engines quickly, hoping that it would be enough. Swearing, she put her hands over her face and felt Daniel’s hands settle on her shoulders, massaging away the tension.
“How far away are we from Pegasus?”
“We’re nearly there,” Vala replied. “But we don’t have a very good map of this area of space. I have no idea if we’re anywhere close to a habitable planet that would give us the resources we need.”
Daniel pressed his lips to the top of her head. “We’ll keep a sharp eye out, then, and we’ll hope that Sam can fix the ship.”
He sat down again, but he reached out and kept his hand linked with hers.
“I hate what’s happened,” Vala said quietly. “But I’m not sorry for this.”
“When we get to Atlantis,” Daniel began, “we’re going to have to decide whether we need one set of quarters or two.”
“Oh, I think we can get by with one set of rooms,” Vala replied with a smile. “We’d just be taking up space otherwise.”
Daniel squeezed her hand. “Okay, then. We’re really doing this.”
“Unless you have a reason not to.”
“No, no reason whatsoever.”
They sat in silence, their fingers still intertwined, and Vala kept an eye on the readouts. She didn’t see any sign that the ship was going to explode, which was always a plus.
Sam appeared in the cockpit some time later, just as Vala was about to doze off. “Okay, I think I’ve got the leak under control. We can’t move very fast, but at least we can move.”
“Let’s just make best speed for the nearest planet with a gate,” Cam added from just behind her. “What kind of map do we have?”
“Not a very good one,” Vala replied. “But the information we do have suggests that there’s a planet with a gate about two days away. There’s no guarantee that there will be any resources on the planet, though, and no guarantee that the gate will work.”
Sam sighed. “There’s another problem. If we land, I can’t promise that we’ll be able to get back off the planet.”
“I thought we were doing okay,” Daniel objected. “We still have the capability to fly.”
“Yeah, through space,” Sam replied. “But we’ll need a lot more power to get off the surface and get out of the gravitational well. Maybe we have it, maybe we don’t. I just don’t know.”
“Do we have a choice?” Vala asked. “There doesn’t appear to be another planet with a gate close enough. And as much as I hate going hungry or thirsty, I’m going to hate watching everyone else die that much more.”
“I’m with Vala,” Daniel stated quietly. “I think we have to take our chances.”
Sam scrubbed her hands over her face. “Okay, well, I’ll do everything I can. If all else fails, we can put out a distress call to Atlantis. Even if the planet’s gate doesn’t work, we can call them. Maybe they can dial in with the supplies we’d need to fix it.”
“It’s a plan,” Cam said. “Vala, you’re at the end of your shift. I’ll take over.”
Daniel rose with her. “I think I’ll get some sleep.”
“Get something to eat, too,” Cam ordered, sliding into the seat that Vala had just vacated.
Vala followed Daniel back into the cargo area, and they ate a few bites. It was hardly satisfying, although she suspected that if they ate more at this point, they would be sick.
She laid down on one of the thin pallets on the floor and watched as Daniel hovered. “Get over here,” she commanded.
Daniel lay down behind her, tugging her close to him. “I just want to be sure that you’re okay with it. You set the pace, Vala.”
She put her hand over his and hummed quietly. “I trust you, Daniel. You forget that we’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Not so long,” Daniel objected.
“Longer than I’ve known just about anyone else,” Vala replied. “Relax. If you do something I don’t like, I won’t hesitate to let you know.”
It wasn’t that easy, of course. Vala knew that the scars from her time in the Goa’uld prison would be around for a long time to come. But she’d known and trusted Daniel, Cameron, and Teal’c before she’d been assaulted. She had Sam’s support and friendship, too.
And if she had the occasional nightmare, it was just part of the job.
“Okay,” Daniel said quietly, continuing to hold her. “Just let me know if you need space.”
“I’d rather you not give me any space,” Vala replied honestly, wanting to know that Daniel didn’t think less of her, wanting the reassurance.
Daniel kissed the back of Vala’s neck. “I can do that.”
Vala dozed restlessly, her dreams fractured and disturbing. She woke once with a start, feeling as though someone was watching her, only to find Sam shaking her awake.
“Sorry,” Sam apologized. “It’s your shift.”
“Okay,” Vala said readily, feeling Daniel stir behind her. “I’ll be right there.”
Her scalp itched, and she wanted a hot shower and a hot meal so badly she could taste it. She had a bite-quite literally-and made her way to the cockpit while Daniel slept on, leaving her pallet for Sam to sleep on.
Cam was piloting the ship when she reached the cockpit, and Vala took the spare seat. “How are we doing?”
“We’re making better time than we thought we would,” Cam replied. “How are you?”
Vala shrugged. “About the same as everyone else, I’d imagine.”
“Tired, hungry, dirty, and needing a break?”
“Precisely.”
Cam glanced over at her. “Vala, I’m sorry you’re stuck like with us, but I’m glad you’re on the team.”
She felt a real smile pull at her lips. “Thank you.”
“Hey, SG-1 is the best of the best. We apparently needed a thief.” Cam’s grin took the sting out of his assessment.
Besides, Vala didn’t mind being called a thief; stealing had saved her life more than once.
Silence reigned after that, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Over the last few weeks, Vala had been forced to get very comfortable with her teammates, and she thought they had all learned how to be content with the quiet.
Cam left at the end of his shift, and Vala moved into the pilot’s seat. Sam appeared a few minutes later and joined her. “Hey. Anything happening?”
Vala shrugged. “Nothing, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at this point.”
Sam laughed. “Yeah, you and me both.”
They didn’t speak much. There wasn’t much to say, which was one of the reasons that Vala felt so listless.
Shift changed again, and Vala changed places with Sam and went to wake up Daniel. She lay down next to Cam, who appeared to be deeply asleep. The shifts changed twice more, and Vala slept as often as possible, wanting to escape hunger and thirst. Three days after the latest coolant leak, Vala woke with her heart thundering in her chest.
“What-”
Daniel was leaning over her. “Vala, hey. We’ve reached the closest planet with a gate. Sam is going to try landing, but she wants everybody to brace themselves.”
“I’m bracing,” Vala replied, sitting up and shifting over to the wall.
Cam was already on his feet. “I’ll help Sam. Daniel, you stay here.”
Daniel hesitated but eventually nodded his agreement. He took a seat next to Vala, his back pushed against the bulkhead.
“What does the planet look like?” Vala asked.
Daniel shrugged. “We’re not sure yet. There was definitely some desert, and maybe some rainforests, but we don’t know where the gate is yet.”
Vala grimaced. “How are we going to find it?”
“Sam has a plan for that.”
“Doesn’t she usually?”
Daniel grinned. “She does. I guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers.”
Vala had heard the expression before, and she responded by holding up a hand and doing just that.
The ship began to buck underneath them, and they both spread their arms, staying flush against the bulkhead, their feet braced against the deck.
“We’re in for a bumpy ride!” Cam shouted from the cockpit. “Hang on!”
Vala exchanged a look with Daniel, and then closed her eyes.
Re-entry into the atmosphere was often turbulent, but this landing was worse than any other Vala had experienced.
She held on for dear life until the ship shuddered to a halt, and she heard Sam call out, “Okay, we’re good! We’re in one piece!”
“Do we know where the gate is?” Daniel asked.
“Should be just outside,” Cam responded. “The atmosphere is breathable, but it’s hot out there, so be ready for it.”
The cargo bay doors opened, and Vala felt the blast of heat. It felt like opening the door of an oven.
She and Daniel stepped outside, blinking under the bright, hot sun, the air gritty with blowing sand. “I don’t know that we’re going to find many resources here,” Daniel murmured.
“Then I guess we’d better get off this planet as soon as we can,” Vala replied. “Because we’re in serious trouble if we don’t.”
~~~~~
Days of darkness and silence had given way to bright, relentless lights and random alarms. Every time Jack began to relax enough to maybe get some sleep, a loud alarm sounded, and he was startled fully awake, his heart racing.
Although he had no idea how much time had passed, it felt like months: months of complete darkness, and months of blinding light and blaring sound. Just when Jack had begun to think that the light and sound would go on forever, the door of his cell swung open to admit a couple of big guys in suits.
Jack was weak from lack of sleep and decent food, and he offered little resistance as they dragged him out. The beating they gave him was expected, even comforting in a way. Jack could deal with this kind of torture; he had been beaten before. He’d been starved before.
What he feared most was that they would break down his will through lack of sleep, and food, and human contact, until he begged to tell everything he knew.
Jack’s only comfort was that he’d told the SGC teams to move on as soon as they could, so any intel he gave would be old news.
But there was no way he was giving up any information before he had to.
The men dumped Jack back in his cell, where the bright lights and blaring alarms continued. Jack curled up around his broken ribs, spitting out blood, and closed his eyes. He remembered an afternoon on the dock at his cabin with Teal’c, throwing his line in the water and trying to explain the joys of fishing-without catching any fish.
Teal’c never had understood, but then no one on his team had.
Well, maybe Sam at the end, but Jack suspected that her enthusiasm had more to do with spending time with him and getting a tan.
Jack was on the receiving end of two more beatings. The third resulted in a punctured lung and being dumped in a sarcophagus.
When he woke up again, he was back in his cell, and it was dark again. Jack was grateful for the respite, but he knew it wouldn’t last long. He faced a never-ending cycle of different kinds of torture until he was killed, or was allowed to die from his injuries.
Another cycle of darkness and silence followed, and another cycle of bright lights and blaring sound. They took him out for another torture session, although this time they used fire and knives, of which Jack was not a fan.
In between sessions, Jack was fed thin gruel, which he ate because there was no other choice. There was a rhythm to it-darkness and light, silence and sound, hunger and satisfaction.
He had no idea how long he’d been in the cell, or how long they’d been trying to get information out of him. He just knew that it was his duty to resist for as long as he could, to find a place in his mind that was safe from his interrogators.
Jack kept fighting because he knew nothing else.
He fought the soldiers when they came for him again, but they overpowered him easily, weakened as he was.
This beating was worse than the ones that came before, but they returned Jack to his cell without learning anything.
Jack curled up in a corner of his cell, feeling as though he didn’t have a lot of time before he gave up the ghost.
He knew how to end his own life, even with the slim resources left to him, but he wasn’t quite ready to go there yet.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut against the bright lights. He hated the lights more than the darkness at this point. At least he could get some sleep when his cell was dark.
When the door slid open, Jack curled up even tighter, keeping his eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“General O’Neill, we must hurry.”
Jack recognized Teal’c’s voice, but he’d been expected the hallucinations to start, so he stayed right where he was. “You’re a figment of my imagination; go away.”
“I am not. O’Neill, can you walk?” The hand on Jack’s arm was large, warm, and gentle, and Jack cracked a swollen eye to peer at him. “We must hurry.”
“T?” Jack croaked. “What are you doing here?”
“I believe you would call us the cavalry. Can you walk?” Teal’c asked urgently.
Jack grunted. “I don’t know. Help me up.”
Teal’c pulled Jack to his feet, but Jack’s knees buckled almost immediately. Teal’c put his arm around Jack’s waist, holding him in place.
“Is the rest of the team with you?” Jack asked.
“We went our separate ways. I would not leave my people.”
“Should have known,” Jack grunted. “Why are you here, then?”
“I could not leave my friend in enemy hands,” Teal’c replied.
Jack blinked as they approached a young man who was clearly acting as a lookout. Jack’s vision wasn’t entirely clear, but he thought he recognized his clone. “Teal’c? What’s he doing here?”
“I’m saving your ass,” the clone replied. “Or maybe I should say saving my own ass.”
Jack grunted. He hated it when a double popped up, whether it was a clone or a robot. “Where’d you find him?”
“That’s a story for another time,” Teal’c replied. “Jon?”
“We’re in the clear,” the clone said.
“Jon?” Jack croaked.
Jon glared at him. “Well, I had to be called something, and ‘Jack’ was confusing. So, yeah, I’m Jon.”
“You got a ship, T?” Jack asked. “Because I don’t think I’m up for a long walk.”
“I always come prepared,” Teal’c intoned. “But we must hurry.”
Teal’c half-carried, half-dragged Jack down several long corridors. Jack’s vision kept graying out from the pain, but he noticed that the two times they ran into resistance, Jon moved with Jack’s own skills, and with the speed and strength of youth.
He’d be about eighteen now, Jack thought. They hadn’t kept in touch, so Jack had no idea what had happened to him in the last couple of years, or why he’d gone along with this little adventure.
They met more resistance as they neared the exit, and Teal’c gripped Jack tighter with one hand while firing a zat with the other.
“Go!” Jon shouted. “I’ll cover your six. Get the old man on board.”
Teal’c didn’t argue, and Jack was in far too much pain to protest the appellation. Teal’c manhandled Jack out of the doors, and across what looked like a parade ground on a military base. Halfway across, an al’kesh appeared before them, the ship shimmering as it dropped the cloak.
Jon ran on board behind them a moment later, firing his zat behind him. “Go, go, go!”
The engines whined to life under Jack’s feet, and Teal’c lowered Jack gently to the deck of the cargo bay.
“Go help Bra’tac,” Jon said. “Cassie and I will take care of O’Neill.”
“Cassie?” Jack called.
“I’m right here, Jack,” Cassie said, putting a hand on his forehead. “You look like shit.”
“Brace yourselves!” Jack recognized Master Bra’tac’s voice. “We’re going to have to outmaneuver the security forces.”
“Jon, let’s get him stretched out,” Cassie said. “We’ll brace him on either side. Hang tight, Jack.”
Jack still wasn’t sure this was real. It might be a hallucination. He didn’t think there was a better explanation for what he was seeing.
Jack groaned as they helped him stretch out, then they sat on either side, anchoring him in place as the ship took off and maneuvered through Earth’s atmosphere. Eventually, the flight path evened out, and Jack felt Cassie and Jon relax on either side of him.
“Jon, quick, grab the first aid kit. We’ll do what we can right now,” Cassie ordered.
“You remind me of your mom,” Jack rasped out. “She used to order everyone around in just that tone of voice.”
Cassie blinked rapidly, her smile tremulous but real. “Thank you. But Jack? It might be better if you passed out now. This is going to hurt like hell.”
“Yeah, I figured. I’ll do my best,” Jack replied, wishing it were that easy, and he could just pass out.
And then Cassie started to run her hands over his ribs, and the resulting pain sent him under.
~~~~~
“Okay, I have good news and bad news,” Sam announced as she reentered the ship, pausing to shake the sand out of her clothing.
Cam glanced at Jackson, who pulled a face. “Let’s have the bad news first,” Cam said.
“The bad news is that the DHD isn’t working, probably because it hasn’t been used in a hundred years and there’s a bunch of sand and dust gumming up the works,” Sam replied.
Vala sighed. “And the good news?”
“Once I get everything cleaned off, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work,” Sam replied, flopping down on the floor.
“How long is that going to take?” Cam asked.
Sam shrugged. “Normally, a couple of days, but we’re short on food, water, and sleep. It’s going to take me longer than it would if I were in peak condition.”
“Vala? Can you help her?” Cam asked.
“I can do whatever you like to get us off this rock,” Vala replied, jumping to her feet. “Just point me in the right direction.”
“We need food and water, if you can find it,” Sam pointed out. “We should forage if possible.”
“Jackson and I will go,” Cam said. “You two see what you can do to fix the DHD. That’s our only chance to get off the planet right now.”
The conditions weren’t ideal to go hunting. He and Jackson were both sleep-deprived and weak from more than a week of short rations. They weren’t at death’s door, but they weren’t at their best either.
Still, Sam was right; they needed food and water. He and Jackson clipped on their weapons-zats and stunners-and checked their knives. They put on their sunglasses, and walked out into the desert wind.
“How are we supposed to find food in this?” Jackson asked as they headed out into the desert. “For that matter, how are we supposed to figure out where the ship is once we get out of shouting distance?”
“That’s what a compass is for, Jackson,” Cam replied, pulling out his. “We’re going to be fine.”
“Now you know something is going to go wrong,” Jackson shot back. “You’ve just jinxed us.”
Cam sighed. “There’s no such thing as a jinx.”
“I know better,” Jackson replied. “Trust me, something is going to go wrong now.”
“Let’s just focus on finding something to eat, and finding water.”
“Where? There’s nothing but sand as far as the eye can see.”
“Where’s your positive attitude?” Cam asked.
“I think I left it back in Cheyenne Mountain,” Jackson replied dryly.
Cam shrugged. “We’ll do our best. If we can’t find anything, at least we’ll know we’ve tried.”
“You actually believe that, don’t you?”
“My eternal optimism is a personality flaw,” Cam admitted.
The earth under their feet was hard and cracked, the gusting wind throwing up dust devils. Cam took some comfort in the fact that there was a little scrub growing. Scrub meant that they might find animal life, insects, maybe even cactus or other succulents, so there was at least a chance they’d find water.
Cam had taken a couple of courses on how to survive in desert terrain-just like he’d learned a few things about surviving in the forest, or in the mountains, or if he ejected over the ocean.
“We’ll probably want to see if we can find some water, or some better scrub,” Cam said. “And then we’re going to have to wait for something to show its head.”
“We’ve got succulents,” Cam said, pulling out his knife and beginning to hack at one of the arms. “There’s not a lot of liquid in here, but it’s better than nothing.”
“How are you going to carry that?” Jackson asked.
Cam grimaced. “Very carefully.” He unbuckled the strap that held his knife sheath and looped it around the cut end and pulled it tight. “Okay, let’s find some food and then head back to the ship.”
“I can see burrows,” Jackson said, pointing.
“Rodents,” Cam murmured. “We’ll have to get a few to make it worth our while.”
After another fifteen minutes of serious searching, they found a spot with a high concentration of holes, and they hunkered down several yards apart. Cam held his zat in a loose grip, slipping into that watchful state that took in the scenery without focusing too hard on any one particular thing.
He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and Cam fired without consciously aiming. Blue light enveloped the creature, which looked a bit like a meerkat, and Cam shot it again for a clean kill.
Cam snagged the body without a word and settled back onto his haunches. Daniel shot the next one, and Cam began to think that they might have a chance at a decent meal that night, even if the cactus wouldn’t give them much in the way of water.
They managed to shoot three more, and then, just as Cam was about to kill his third animal, he felt a sting in his right arm. The pain was unexpected, and he let out an involuntary yelp, sending his quarry scurrying back into its burrow.
“Cam?” Jackson called. “You okay?”
“Something bit me,” Cam admitted. He looked around, seeing something vaguely scorpion-like digging down into the ground out of sight. “I don’t know what it was.”
“Show me,” Jackson ordered.
Cam found himself obeying. He winced when he saw the red, raised welt on his right forearm, and he could tell that it was already swelling.
“We need to get back to the ship,” Jackson insisted. “We’ve got enough meat for tonight, and I’m not going to carry you.”
“I’m fine,” Cam insisted.
Jackson glared at him. “I spent some time in desert climates, too, you know. You might feel okay right now, but chances are you’re going to be sicker than a dog pretty soon. So just fucking listen to me, and don’t be such a fucking hero, Cam.”
“Okay, okay,” Cam replied, holding up his hands in surrender at Jackson’s fierce tone. “You got it. We’ll go back to the ship.”
“No way am I losing you,” Jackson muttered. “The women would kill me.”
Cam grunted as Jackson heaved him up to his feet. His arm was throbbing in time to the beat of his heart, and he was already beginning to feel dizzy.
“Daniel, I think this is going to get bad,” Cam said quietly.
Jackson looked at him. “Yeah. I told you so.”
“I know you did.”
“Are you going to make it back?” Jackson asked.
Cam managed a tight smile. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
Chapter 9