“No,” Hammond agreed, “it wouldn’t.” He thought for a moment. “Colonel, can you identify which Goa’uld we’re dealing with here?”
“I made a note of the,” he gestured toward his forehead, “marking on the bodies, sir. I didn’t recognize it, but I’ve taken it up to Dr. Rothman and he’s looking into it.”
It was a pity, Hammond thought, that Dr. Jackson wasn’t here to look into it himself. Instead, it was his blood that had been spilled on a distant world and Hammond’s job to get him home. He sighed, feeling helpless in the face of so many dead ends. “Then we’re at an impasse,” he said. “Colonel, do you have any suggestions? I’m open to ideas.”
Makepeace sat forward in his seat. “Send my team back to ’104, sir. We only searched the vicinity of the Stargate, but if we headed all the way out to the site Dr. Jackson wanted to investigate we might find out more. It’s even possible they’re being held on the planet. We didn’t find any evidence of Goa’uld transport rings being used. Either that or they’ve taken refuge somewhere and ended up cut off from the gate.”
“That’s a good idea, Colonel,” he said, although he’d be sending a different team. He needed Makepeace to travel with him to Tollana.
He was about to say as much when Dr. Fraiser interrupted. “General, how about contacting the Tok’ra? They’re bound to recognize the Jaffa insignia and they’ll know a lot more about it than Dr. Rothman — with all due respect to the doctor.”
Makepeace snorted. “The Tok’ra? Come on, Doc, they only help us when it’s in their own interest. One of our teams going missing won’t mean anything to them.”
Hammond didn’t appreciate his dismissive tone and Fraiser’s eyes took on a distinctly flinty expression. “I’m sure it’ll mean something to General Carter, Colonel.”
Makepeace shrugged, but remained unconvinced. “The general’s only one of them, Doc. I’m just saying — I’ve never known a Tok’ra do anything without an ulterior motive. And there’s nothing in this for them.” He looked over at Hammond. “It might be worth asking them, General, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for an answer. For something this important, we’re better off relying on our own resources.”
“Really, Colonel?” The chilly look in Fraiser’s eye belied her mild tone. “Even when our own resources aren’t adequate to the task?”
“They’re good enough,” Makepeace said, getting to his feet. He was doing a poor job of masking his irritation. “One thing you learn out there is to trust no one but your own people. It’s the only way you’ll get home alive.” He towered over the doctor as he spoke, but if he was attempting to intimidate her, he was out of luck. Fraiser simply regarded him with a cool, appraising gaze and it was the colonel who looked away first. Glancing at Hammond he said, “Sir, permission to prep for a return mission to P5X-104?”
Hammond considered the request for a moment, taking in the man’s hard face and harder attitude. Unfortunately, he couldn’t ignore the alarm bells that had started ringing in the back of his mind and he realized that, for all his admirable qualities, Colonel Makepeace was not the man to take into his confidence about the Maybourne situation. In fact, Hammond was forced to admit that he probably shouldn’t trust any of his off-world teams. However unlikely it might be, each of them had had the opportunity to steal technology from their allies.
Swallowing down the sudden sour taste in his mouth, he shook his head. “Permission denied, Colonel. I’ll send SG-2.”
“What? But, sir —”
“Robert, your team has just finished two back-to-back missions. You’re all exhausted. Go home and get some rest and report back here for 1000 hours tomorrow.”
“General Hammond —”
“That’s an order, Colonel.”
Makepeace’s jaw clenched and he straightened. “Yes sir,” he said with obvious reluctance. He threw Fraiser a dark look, and then turned back to Hammond. “SG-3 will do whatever it takes to bring them home, General.”
“I know, son. Now go get some rest.”
After Makepeace had gone, Hammond sat for a while in Fraiser’s silent office. She was staring at the closed door, her thoughts drifting far away. SG-1 were her friends too, Hammond reminded himself. She and Major Carter were especially close, but her history with the colonel went right back to the beginning of the Stargate program. It was sometimes easy to forget that Doctor Janet Fraiser was one of the indomitable rocks upon which Stargate Command had been built. He respected her, admired her, and valued her judgment more than almost anyone else on the base.
Maybe sensing his eyes on her, Fraiser shook herself out of her thoughts and looked over at him. “Despite all his bravado, sir,” she said, her tone almost apologetic, “I hope Colonel Makepeace is right. I hope he finds them.”
“So do I.” Hammond gave a thin smile. “Makepeace is a good man, doctor, but I’m afraid his manner can sometimes be a little… abrasive.”
“Ah,” Fraiser said with a smile of her own. “Abrasive — that’s what it’s called.” After a pause, she added, “For what it’s worth, General, I think he’s wrong about the Tok’ra. They may be standoffish at times, but I believe they’d help us if they could — especially Martouf and General Carter.”
He nodded. “I agree.”
“And despite what the colonel may think, we can’t survive out there alone. Even Colonel O’Neill admits that, and you know what he thinks about the Tok’ra.”
Hammond smiled at the picture she was painting. O’Neill had never been backward in coming forward with his criticism of their allies, but he was prepared to give them credit too when it was deserved. Maybe his frank honesty, Hammond reflected, was why they trusted him.
“Well,” Fraiser said, getting her feet, “with your permission, sir, I’ll get on with my rounds.” She nodded toward the two occupied beds in the infirmary. “I’ve got half of SG-5 in with a nasty case of bacterial gastroenteritis.”
“From their last mission?” He didn’t remember hearing about it.
The doctor gave a rueful smile. “Leftover Chinese takeout, sir.”
Hammond chuckled. “I guess not all the dangers are to be found off-world, doctor.”
“No sir,” she said, but the smile slipped from her face. “Only most of them.”
He nodded as his thoughts also returned to SG-1. “I’ll be sure to keep you apprised of any progress.”
“Thank you, General. I appreciate that.”
He stood up and headed to the door, but he’d only just grasped the handle when a thought struck him out of the blue. It was perfectly formed and perfectly right and he wondered why it hadn’t occurred to him before. “Doctor,” he said, turning back around. “How would you feel about taking a little trip?”
Fraiser cocked her head, curious. “A trip, sir?”
“To Tollana,” he said. “I’ve a feeling I’ll need a friend by my side.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Sam?”
Daniel’s voice roused her from a light doze and she was awake at once. She never slept deeply off-world, and even less so when the situation was this precarious. It was dark in the tent, but much warmer than outside with the three of them crowded in together. Daniel lay in the middle, inside his own and the colonel’s sleeping bags, Teal’c lay flat on his back and unmoving on one side of him and Sam had been curled up on the other. She could hear the slow, deep breaths that meant Teal’c had entered kel’no’reem, and moved quietly so as not to disturb him.
Sitting up, she pushed her sleeping bag down to her waist and reached over to find Daniel’s forehead. The colonel had ordered them to observe light discipline, so she had to make her way by touch alone.
“I’m here,” she said quietly. His skin felt fevered, which sent a coil of disquiet spiraling up into her throat. On the plus side, at least he hadn’t gone into full-fledged shock. “You want some water?”
She could feel him nod under her hand, so found the canteen — which was now less than half full — and held
it to his lips. He took a few thirsty sips and then lay back down with a hiss of pain.
“Bad?”
“Um, yeah.”
She squeezed his shoulder. “Hang in there.”
“I’m hanging.”
She smiled at his quiet stoicism. He’d always been like this, right from day one when he was still reeling from the loss of his wife. “You want me to ask Colonel O’Neill about a morphine shot?”
There was a rustle of movement as Daniel shook his head. “Save it for later.”
She knew what he meant, of course — later, when the pain was more intense. “We’ll be home by then,” she said, smoothing her hand over his forehead.
He made a soft sound that might have been a laugh. “Optimist.”
“Try to get some sleep,” she said, stroking her fingers up into his hair. She remembered her mom doing the same for her as a child and felt a sting of old, old pain.
They were quiet for a while, the sound of Teal’c’s steady breathing filling the tent. Outside, she could hear the colonel moving about on watch. He was probably trying to keep warm. They’d not lit a fire, for obvious reasons, so there was nothing to do but keep moving. She peeked under her Velcro watch cover at the glowing face — twenty minutes until she had to relieve him. No point in trying to go back to sleep. Not that she’d been sleeping.
“Sam?” Daniel again.
“Shh,” she soothed him, stroking his head.
“No, Sam, there’s something…” She looked down and saw his eyes glint in the almost total darkness. “I… I think I saw something, before.”
Her hand stopped moving. “What kind of thing?”
“A person,” he said. “I thought I saw someone out there, watching us, right before I passed out.”
“Right before you passed out?”
He caught the skeptical tone of her voice. “No, I’m sure it was real,” he persisted. “A girl in the mist.”
“Okay,” she said, stroking his head again. “But we did a thorough recon of the area, Daniel. There’s not much here.”
He scrubbed a hand across his face, brushing her fingers. “I know what I saw.”
“Okay,” she said again. “I’ll tell the colonel. We’ll keep our eyes open.”
“Girl in the mist,” he muttered, more drowsy. “I saw her…”
Sam sat with him a few minutes longer, waiting until he’d drifted down into a feverish sleep. Then she struggled out of her sleeping bag, leaving it for the colonel to use, and crawled to the door of the tent and unzipped it slowly, quietly. She shoved her feet into her boots, tied the laces tight and slipped her tac vest back on, as much for the additional warmth as the protection.
Closing the tent, she picked up her weapon and glanced around in search of the colonel. They’d camped just into the tree line, looking down over what she’d named in her head as the Stargate Valley. Before the light had failed she’d still been able to see the gate in the distance, and beyond it she’d glimpsed a gunmetal gray strip of water at the far end of the valley. Not the sea, but maybe an estuary of some kind. Behind the tent, hills rose up high but not quite into mountains. It was all lost in the darkness now, though. If this planet had a moon, its light wasn’t visible tonight.
They’d found no fresh water, but she’d rigged one of the tarps to catch whatever snow or rain fell overnight, although she wasn’t entirely sure it would be uncontaminated. She crouched and peered inside the tarp. There was already a thin covering of slushy water. She’d test it in the morning to see if it was safe to drink.
At least the ground here was free of the ashy fallout that had gathered in the valley. She’d insisted they all brushed as much of it off their clothes and belongings as possible as soon as they’d left the valley and started heading up to higher ground. Colonel O’Neill had grumbled about the delay, but only half-heartedly — almost as if he was going through the motions. He knew the danger as well as anyone.
Once they’d made camp, they’d all changed into dry clothes and packed their wet — and probably contaminated — clothes away into their packs. Sam had been keen to just discard them, but Colonel O’Neill had insisted on keeping them. An extra layer could be the difference between life and death.
Standing up again, she glanced around, but had to take a few steps away from the tent before she saw the colonel. It was marginally lighter outside, the thin snow cover reflecting back what little brightness the sky had to offer, and she could just make him out sitting on one of the rocks that littered the hillside, gazing out in the direction of the dark water.
Bracing herself for a brusque reception — he was always brusque these days — she walked toward him making enough noise that he’d hear her coming. It was never a good idea to startle an armed man on watch. “Sir?” she said, when she was close enough to talk quietly. “Time to turn in.”
He didn’t move, didn’t respond right away. Then he said, “I thought I saw a light.”
“Where?”
He pointed out toward the black horizon. “Way, way out. And then it was gone.”
She took a few steps closer, the icy air making her nose run. She sniffed. At least the snow had stopped falling, although that wouldn’t do much for her attempt to collect drinking water. “What do you think it was?”
“No idea. Boat? Could have been anything.”
“But if you’re right, sir, it means the planet could be inhabited. At least, part of it.”
“Inhabited by the people who nuked the gate.”
She conceded the point without argument and instead said, “Sir, Daniel told me he thinks he saw someone.”
That got his attention. He turned around, looking at her from beneath the bill of his hat. She couldn’t see his face at all in the shadows. “When?”
“Right before he passed out.”
“Ah.”
“But he’s convinced it was real,” she said. “And if you saw a light… ?”
“Teal’c didn’t find any tracks,” he said, getting to his feet and stamping his feet, trying to knock some heat into them. “Teal’c’s pretty thorough.”
“I know, sir. But I told him I’d tell you.”
He nodded. “How is he?”
No good news there. “He’s still got a fever, sir. I’m afraid he’s developing an infection.”
“Yup,” the colonel said, tight and clipped with concern. “I gave him an antibiotic shot, but God knows what kind of alien bugs were on that planet — or this one.”
“Yes sir.”
“He needs to be in hospital.”
“I know.”
He turned, kicking irritably at the rock he’d been sitting on. “God, we need to get out of here.”
Sam felt his accusation hanging there in the air between them. You misdialed, Major. This is your fault.
There was a time, before Edora, when he’d never have been so unjust, and she couldn’t help wondering if he blamed her for dragging him home when he didn’t want to leave. Was he punishing her? It wasn’t like him, but the colonel hadn’t been himself since he got back and that was the only explanation she could find. She just wished he’d talk about it, but of course he never would.
“This can’t be easy for you, sir,” she said, taking a sideways approach to the subject. “I mean, it’s your first off-world mission since Edora and we’re stuck. Again.”
“Some dumb luck, huh?”
Gritting her teeth, she decided to face it head on. If he was pissed she’d brought him home then she’d rather he told her so upfront. Anything was better than this bristling tension. “Sir, I’m sorry if —”
“No, I’m sorry, Carter,” he interrupted, still scuffing at the rock with the toe of his boot. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions about what went wrong today.”
“Oh.”
“I kinda bit your head off back there.”
“Um,” she said, taking a moment to switch tracks. “It’s okay, sir. You’re worried about Daniel. We all are.”
He no
dded. “Yeah.”
She took a step closer, shoving her cold hands into her jacket pockets. “Sir, I’ve been thinking about it, actually, and I honestly don’t believe I misdialed.”
“Okay.” He threw her a sideways look. “You got a better theory?”
“Yes sir.” She’d been pondering it as they walked up out of the valley, running through the problem over and over. If she hadn’t misdialed, then what had happened? She thought she had the answer. “Sir, just at the moment we left P5X-104, the Death Gliders made another pass. They were firing at the gate as we went through.”
He looked at her and she could see comprehension dawning in his eyes. “You’re thinking just like Antarctica?”
“Yes sir. I think the energy transfer caused by the impact might have caused the wormhole to skip to another Stargate.”
“This doesn’t look much like Area 51.”
“No, but the wormhole could have skipped to another gate, one close to Earth within the Stargate network.”
He shook his head and pulled his cap back on. “Close to Earth, you say?”
She knew what he was thinking. “Sir, I realize that ‘close to Earth’ is a relative term —”
“Without a DHD, Carter, we might as well be on the other side of the galaxy.”
She frowned, studying him for a moment and trying to decide whether he really didn’t get it or was just pretending to be obtuse. But he only played dumb when there was someone to misdirect, and he wasn’t about to convince her he was stupid. Which meant he really didn’t get it. “Sir, you do realize that General Hammond will be looking for us?”
He fixed her with an unreadable look. “Of course I do.”
“So… ?” she said, testing to see if he was following her logic.
“So?”
“Sir, if I’m right, the gate will have connected with Earth before the energy from the weapons strike caused the matter stream to skip. So the SGC will know we tried to dial in. And if they reach the same conclusion about what’s happened, which is very likely given that we’ve encountered this exact scenario before, then they’ll narrow the search to the planets between P5X-104 and Earth. Which means it won’t take them long to find us. Maybe just a couple of days.”
SG1-25 Hostile Ground Page 5
