SUMMARY: Another wormhole anomaly, and Daniel gets left
behind.
CATEGORY: Drama, angst
RELATED EPISODES: Solitudes
DISCLAIMER: The theme and main characters have been
borrowed from the Stargate SG-1 tv series, and are copyright
property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp,
Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I
Prod. Ltd. This story has been written for entertainment
purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.
02/15/01
Day 1, 0930 hours
The vortex splashed open as Jack watched, then quickly
settled into the hazy reflection of its water-like event
horizon. A simple follow-up mission for the SG1 team to
Amdhar-bahar, a pleasant outing to a world of lovely villages
and nice people. SG3 had made contact with this world two weeks
earlier, and had found the natives to be curious, engaging, and
downright hospitable. They had been glad to have unexpected
visitors, or so it seemed. And they had good naquadah mining
prospects, if they would be willing to sign an agreement. The
problem was, they didn't speak English, more of what sounded
from the tapes to be a derivative of ancient Greek. A cinch for
Dr. Jackson, hopefully.
"Dr. Jackson," General Hammond called as the team strode up
the ramp, "a moment, please."
Daniel stopped, as did Jack. "Go ahead, Jack. I'll be there
in a minute."
As Teal'c, Sam, and Jack stepped through the vortex, the
General handed Daniel a slightly larger than palm-sized video
camera. "Take this, Dr. Jackson. It's our newest acquisition,
hot off the design table. Apparently they've been working on
some 3D type functions and want it tested out. Have a look at
it, see what you can do with it."
Daniel looked at the camera's mechanisms, deciding it
didn't look too difficult to operate. "3D, huh? In Jack's words
- cool." He placed the camera carefully into his pack and
stepped through the wormhole........
...right into two feet of water.
_______
The trio had just stepped out of the wormhole into a bright
sunshiny day, the perfect surroundings and temperature for a
two-mile hike to the village.
"Ah, birds chirping, cool breezes blowing, great day for a
picnic. Lay down the tablecloth Teal'c, get out the lemonade,
..."
"It does sort of remind me of outings with my cousins," Sam
smiled in retort. "Judy - she was just a bit older than me -
used to take me on short hikes while everyone else was snoozing
on the blankets, and show me plants she'd been learning about
in school..."
The deactivation of the wormhole caused the three team
members to sharply turn and face the direction of the puzzling
phenomenon.
"Uh... I have no idea, sir. Maybe they kept him back at the
base for something? The wormhole would only have been closed
down at their end, sir, so if there was still a
traveller..."
"Okay, dial us home, Major. Let's find out what's going
on."
Major Carter went over to the DHD and began to dial in
Earth's address. O'Neill and Teal'c stood together, surmising
on what might have kept Daniel back.
"Colonel!"
Jack walked over to the DHD. "Problem, Major?"
"Uh, yes, sir." Sam looked at him with worried eyes. "I
can't seem to establish a connection."
As Sam and Jack looked at each other for an uncomprehending
moment, O'Neill spoke. "Okay, they're probably trying to dial
up again, to send Daniel through. They must've had to shut it
down for a moment. No problem. We'll just wait and see."
It was about ten minutes later when Jack finally stopped
his pacing. "Okay folks, Daniel's not coming through and no
one's sending a message to tell us why. Let's try again."
This time the dial-up worked, and the event horizon shot
open.
_______
The three members of SG1 stepped through the wormhole into
the gateroom, to the concerned looks of attending SGC
crew.
"What happened, Colonel? You've been gone less than fifteen
minutes." The general eyed them carefully. Déjå
vu...their fourth member was not with them. For the third
time in his memory, Hammond asked the question, "And where is
Doctor Jackson?"
The trio stopped in their tracks, the puzzled looks on
their faces changing to fear.
"We ...we thought he was still here, sir." Oh no, don't
let this be happening again...
"Daniel never came throught the gate, General. It shut down
about a minute after we got there."
General Hammond took in what they were saying, but
comprehension was lacking. "Dr.Jackson went through the gate no
more than two or three minutes after you did, SG1... alright
people, let's find out what's going on. We have a man out there
somewhere, let's find him."
_______
The horror Daniel felt as he stared frozenly at his
surroundings overpowered the realization itself that he was in
water up to his thighs. For as far as the eye could see, in
every direction, horizon to horizon ...nothing but water. Still
water, unmoving, like an enormous looking glass. And nothing
else.
The shocking view before him began to give way to a
knowledge that had been blocked from his consciousness for a
few excruciatingly long moments: the realization that, besides
this not being P2R-361, Amdhar-bahar, he was also ... alone,
completely, desolately, frighteningly alone.
Reality began to creep back into Daniel's awareness, and he
looked down at the water surrounding him. More greenish than
blue, clean, although he couldn't see down to the bottom. He
looked out at the horizon; so strange, no tree line, no
mountains - just flatness, darker water blending into the
eventual sky. This water was so still, barely a ripple.
'Obviously no one puts a Stargate in the middle of a lake,
so it must've been flooded at some point in time. Some
catastrophe... there must be a DHD somewhere.'
Daniel headed out towards the most likely location of a
DHD, realizing that, as on many other worlds, the Stargate here
was on a raised platform. Tucking his jacket into his hopefully
waterproof pack, he dropped the whole thing at the foot of the
Stargate, into two feet of water. No other way to keep it dry
now, anyway. As he waded the few steps downwards, the water
soon reached his shoulders. Pushing forward, Daniel wondered if
the DHD would even be useable - or would he get electrocuted,
trying to dial up under water? He'd have to take the
chance.
But there seemed to be no DHD, nothing that he could feel,
anyway. He dove under the water, he could see for a limited
distance, the water wasn't all that deep. The bottom was sandy,
many very tiny pebbles, some larger broken stones, but
otherwise fairly flat. No sign of a DHD or there ever having
been one. Perhaps, if this flood was from an ancient glacier
melt, a moving ice mass might've pushed it well into the
distance...? Or maybe it had simply been removed. Daniel
surfaced, not knowing what to make of this, but knowing one
thing - he wasn't going home any time soon.
--------------------
Day 1, 1700 hours
"Nothing yet, sir." Sam knew the unspoken question on the
Colonel's lips as he stood leaning in the doorway. The same
question he'd asked every other time he'd stopped by the
control room. They still had no clue as to why the wormhole had
shut down at only one end, or what could have possibly happened
to Daniel. There had been no power fluctuation, nothing to
cause the wormhole to skip to another gate, as had happened
before. They simply had nothing to work with.
The search on planets between Earth and P2R -361 was
continuing, however, but so far each search team had come back
alone.
"So... assuming Daniel is somewhere on a planet safe and
sound, why doesn't he come home? No DHD, right?"
"Right, sir. We figure he'd be waiting near the Stargate,
though, so the probes' videos should show him before we even do
a search. So far, no sign of him. Now, if he were hurt, he'd
also be near the Stargate... unless he was hurt too close to
the event horizon when we opened it..."
"Don't go there, Carter," Jack snapped. "That's not what
happened."
"...or he was caught in the wormhole. We still don't know
if that can happen or not."
"What happened, Major, is that Daniel's on some planet we
just haven't checked yet, without a DHD."
"Let's hope it's a planet that still supports life, sir."
Sam didn't meet Jack's eyes. She didn't want to consider all
the options any more than he did, but she was a scientist, she
needed to look at every possibility in order to complete her
analysis adequately. She couldn't leave any theory
unapproached.
She would worry about the implications later.
_______
Daniel gazed forlornly at the open space around him. For
once, he had no options. He felt utterly helpless, not a
glimmer of an idea to help him figure out what to do next. Even
with all his other missions, other planets he had visited and
survived and been stranded on, he had never felt so hopelessly
lost.
There was no dry land to head for, nowhere to get out of
this wetness. He had considered piling up large rocks and
making a platform above water, but could find nothing more than
tiny pebbles and what looked to be short petrified tree stumps,
firmly rooted in the ground. The only substance above water
level was the Stargate itself.
Well, he could stand in the water for the rest of his life,
or he could... get up there, and think this through a little
more clear-headedly. Daniel knew he still was unable to
logically assess his situation, panic seeping through his being
every time he looked at his surroundings. Which was
always.
He removed some rope from his soggy pack, and threw an end
over the top of the Stargate. Making a slip knot and pulling it
tight, the rope hugged the top of the gate while leaving a long
hanging end free. With his dripping pack on his back, Daniel
climbed up and straddled the top of the large device.
What he would do, for now, was all that he could think
of... wait for an SG team to find him.
--------------------
Day 2, 0500 hours
While Jack and Teal'c had gone out the previous day with
some of the search teams, for the most part there was nothing
to do but sit and wait, wait for the other teams to return.
Jack hated playing the waiting game, especially when it came to
one of his team members. Waiting in the infirmary was hard
enough, but at least then the information he needed was close
at hand, and he always knew what was going on. But when someone
went missing - like Daniel, three, four times now - there was
always the possiblility that that person might never return
again. They had been lucky, with the crystal skull. It was
Daniel who had found himself, really, and could have
ended up being stuck in invisible limbo for eternity. Just
how long would an invisible person live, anyway? His
alternate reality, he lucked out there, too. If they hadn't
gotten that wormhole open at the last minute... or if Daniel
had needed that remote to get back to this reality... Jack
shuddered at the close calls. Not to mention when Daniel didn't
come back because they thought he was dead...
And every time, Jack swore it would never happen again, he
couldn't go through that again. Why couldn't this CO just learn
his lesson, always go through that gate beside all his
teammates... he would at least have been with Daniel, wherever
he was. It disturbed him to think of his friend out there,
alone. Why would he have ever thought something could go wrong
between their own gateroom and the exiting planet? It wasn't
his fault. He couldn't have known. But still...
"I thought I'd find you here, Colonel. I'm sorry Sir, we
still have no plausible answers. All we can do is continue
searching." Sam interrupted Jack's thoughts, sitting there in
Daniel's office, gazing at nothing in particular.
"Sam, I keep thinking... what if this is where his luck
runs out?" Jack's confident demeanor seemed to have vanished,
replaced momentarily by an uncertainty, a need for reassurance,
that Sam had rarely seen in him before.
Carter sat down beside her CO. "We can't think like that,
sir. Not yet."
"Why not? You do it all the time."
Sam looked at Jack and smiled. "Because I know you have
enough optimism to get us both back on our feet, Sir. You can't
let me down now."
"Okay, I won't. We'll find him."
"Yes, Sir. We'll find him."
_______
The sun had set early, the daylight had been short but the
night seemed interminable, and it was getting quite cool now.
Daniel's clothes were still slightly damp, his boots soggy and
uncomfortable, and he'd taken them off. And speaking of
uncomfortable, the 'gate crest left much to be desired in the
way of a plush seating arrangement. So many times had he
shifted his body that Daniel was sure muscles had been used
that had never even been tried in his lifetime. Exhaustion was
beginning to claim both his physical body and his emotional
state, and food would soon be a problem ... or lack of it. He
had only a couple of water bottles - not that lack of water
would be his greatest worry - and about 6 chocolate bars
...well, 5 now. They really had been counting on that
good home cooking of the Amdhar-bahar residents... and Sam had
been carrying all the other edible necessities. The only other
contents of his pack were some first aid supplies, rope - at
least that had come in handy; a semi-moist sleeping bag,
which he hadn't been able to figure out how to use while
balancing on a gatetop, gun ...maybe he could shoot some fish?
and a couple of video cameras. One which could at least catch
all of this in 3D! Daniel almost grinned at the irony of his
situation.
He attempted to lie forward, hanging his legs over the
edges and then slowly draping his ankles up and over the top of
the gate. That was worse than before, no way could he lie down.
Even if he somehow managed to find a way to sleep, a splash
into the water would undoubtedly hurt - the water down below
was just over a couple of feet deep. It was hard enough keeping
his balance just sitting.
Daniel knew he couldn't stay perched on this ledge much
longer. Another attempted search for the DHD had turned up
nothing. He knew the SG teams would be looking for him, taking
his lead from the Antarctica search, although he couldn't
figure out why or how the wormhole could have sent him here; as
far as he could tell there had been no power surge like last
time. Or like the times they had manufactured one themselves,
to block out the effects of the black hole and to retrieve
Madrona's touchstone. Something else had to have happened...
and he was counting on Sam to figure out what it was.
He desperately hoped he wouldn't have much longer to
wait.
--------------------
Day 2, 1400 hours
"I'm sorry. I can't figure out what happened." Sam kicked
her chair in frustration, knowing it was not her nature to give
up, knowing she would never give up on Daniel, but
knowing also that she had absolutely nowhere else to turn and
was completely out of options.
"I don't know enough about gate travel and wormhole physics
to find a solution here, General,...Colonel. I'm sorry." She
was close to tears, as she had been another time, in a similar
situation... memories haunted her of an injured Jack, counting
on her to get him out of a frozen ice cave, to get them both
home before they froze to death, and so desperately she had
tried, in vain.
"Would there not have to be a second gate, then, on P2R
361?" asked Teal'c, who had been having much the same thoughts
as Major Carter, having been previously on the searching end of
the Antarctica mishap.
"That would be the same as the wormhole jumping to another
planet in midstream, Teal'c, and there was absolutely no
evidence of a power surge. I've gone over that possibility,
again and again," Carter explained, exasperation in her voice.
She didn't mean to let her emotions flow so obviously, and
would never intentionally take her frustrations out on Teal'c;
these were her own frustrations, she couldn't believe how
little use she'd been through all of this, how little she'd
been able to contribute. Sam was unhappily coming to the
conclusion that when the wormhole had shut down, Daniel had
simply been trapped within it, somewhat like the horrendous
effects of being caught in an incoming vortex.
Daniel was counting on her ... she couldn't, she
wouldn't let him down! Yet there was nothing else she
could do to help him.
_______
The moons were full, all three of them, casting glows and
shadows on the surface of the still, black water. This might
have been beautiful, had Daniel not felt so scared. If he'd had
someone to share it with, and a way to get home afterwards. But
now, it was just plain eery.
The childhood game came to mind, 'what would you do if
you were the last person on Earth?' How about, the last
person on a water-covered Earth? Or any planet, for that
matter. He couldn't remember ever having been so terrified,
except maybe when he'd discovered Sha're had been abducted, but
then at least he'd been able to persuade himself to have hope.
Even when the skull had left him in a different phase, and no
one could see him right in his own backyard, the feeling had
been more of frustration than of fear, at first, anyway. He'd
been able to observe, back then, his colleagues working at
locating him. And when he'd been held prisoner by that ancient
lonely sea creature, Nem, he'd at least had someone to talk to.
He couldn't talk his way out of this one.
Daniel had made it halfway through the night and could take
it no longer. He had to get off this thing. Leaving his
footwear, t-shirt, and fatigues draped over the top of the
'gate, Daniel slid down the rope a little too quickly, and,
soothing his hands in the mildly cool water, he stretched his
aching legs. He couldn't stay awake forever; he desperately
needed sleep, needed to rest his body against something,
anything, and let his muscles relax.
He lowered his body slowly into the cool water and leaned
against the base of the Stargate. As the movement caused the
water to ripple gently below his shoulders, Daniel closed his
eyes and forced his tension to dissipate. Sleep came, a few
minutes at a time, but as the growing chill of the night air
mingled with colder water and fatigue, Daniel began to worry
more about eventual hypothermia than sleep, and finally climbed
the rope once more to dry out atop the great circle.
--------------------
Day 3, 0900 hours
The second night had felt even longer than the first. Sam
had lain awake staring at the darkened ceiling above her cot
for most of it, knowing that being ordered to get a few hours
sleep didn't mean she'd actually be able to, even knowing that
a few night teams were still out there working on search and
rescue.
She still could not imagine how this had happened, or where
Daniel could possibly be ... or what he was going through at
that very moment ... somewhere… hopefully still
alive.
She hated to think of Daniel out there, alone, thousands of
light years away, on some possibly hostile world. Even in
Antarctica, no matter how horrible that had been, she'd at
least had Jack to hash things out with. She couldn't imagine
having been there without him. She could only hope that Daniel
was enjoying himself on a planet with friendly, hospitable
natives... and not Goa'ulds.
The implications were severe. The thought kept lingering in
her mind that if this could happen on a routine mission, with a
normally functioning wormhole, then it could happen again, and
again, at any time. She had to figure out what had
caused this, or they could all be in danger each time they
stepped through the Stargate.
Now, at 0900 hours, the team sat around the long table in
the briefing room, joined by Lieutenant Madison, of SG8. They
suspected another mission was up and coming.
General Hammond began. "SG1, there is nothing more you can
do here for Dr. Jackson, so I'm putting you back in the field.
I want you to go..."
"General, with all due respect sir, I need to be here,"
Jack cut the General off in mid-sentence, getting his personal
request in before the anticipated official order came that
would place him off-world. "Let me at least join the other
search teams..."
"No, Colonel. I need the SGC back to some semblance of
normalcy, and SG1 is our most experienced team." He saw the
confrontation looming in the other man's eyes, but didn't allow
him to continue. "Trust the other teams, Colonel. If Dr.Jackson
is out there to be found, they will find him."
"Sir, I just feel..."
"I know how you feel, Jack. How the rest of your team
feels. You're missing a man. But a lot of what you're feeling
is from having nothing to do here on base, son. The search will
continue, but you are needed elsewhere from now on. We
need that mining agreement drawn up between ourselves and the
inhabitants of Amdhar-bahar, let's get that mission underway.
Lt. Madison here learned Greek while working on the islands
with his wife's art history team. He'll try to replace Dr.
Jackson on this one, and see if he can feasibly communicate
with the villagers. You'll leave this afternoon at 1400 hours.
You have 48 hours before I'll be expecting you to check in or
return. "
Jack was silent, staring at his clenched hands and leaning
forward on the table.
"Colonel...? ...That's your mission, Colonel. I'm not
changing my decision."
"Yes, sir."
_______
Daniel had alternated between sitting at the bottom of the
gate to rest in the water, and on its crest to dry out, for
another long day, and his patience and hope were wearing thin.
His clothes could never seem to get completely dry, and he was
too cold to go for long without them.
As the second night moved in, Daniel surveyed the black
horizon. He had no idea how long it would take for anyone to
find him, or if they ever would. Maybe this planet wasn't even
on any of their cartouches or in the computer system at all. He
had to do something. "Help me out, here, Jack," Daniel
muttered. "What would you do now?"
The winds had picked up, and sheltering himself in the
folds of his jacket - his only completely dry item of clothing
- Daniel huddled on his perch and watched a distant electrical
storm move across one of the far horizons. The night sky in
that direction lit up as each dancing illumination displayed an
astonishing light show. Daniel certainly didn't want to be in
the water if and when that storm hit, but even worse, he knew
he couldn't be perched on his refuge atop the Stargate.
Daniel had had many long and dreadful hours in which to
review his situation, to think about everything that could and
would and might happen. Reluctantly admitting that it was
unlikely that his friends, or anyone for that matter, would
ever be coming, Daniel made his decision. He faced the
direction he assumed land had once been in - assuming the
Stargate had logically faced inland - and started
"walking".
_______
Daniel had been wading, walking, swimming, paddling,
floating, through the black inky water, illuminated by the glow
of three moons, for nearly seven hours. It was hard going, and
he was well past the point of exhaustion. The water had started
to chill him long ago; it wasn't terribly cold and might have
been refreshing for a swim on a hot day, but the night air was
cool, the wind had kept up, and hours in the water, combined
with exhaustion and hunger, had a cumulative effect. He was
unable to control his shivering, and his shoulders and neck
muscles were tense and throbbing. He knew this was as much due
to his prolonged efforts at movement as anything else, yet he
could not rule out approaching hypothermia. His fatigue was
gaining hold.
He had caught onto some floating debris for a while, not
knowing quite what it had been made out of, but apparently
hadn't done much floating in the almost still water. There was
no current to speak of, just a bit of movement now and then
when the wind picked up, and not wanting to just drift,
possibly in the wrong direction, he'd let go, giving up the few
minutes of rest it had afforded his aching muscles. Daniel
wished he could just lie down, rest for an hour... but even the
protrusions under the water, which he'd realized were not tree
stumps but parts of long-buried columns, were not high enough
to sit on with his head above water. So he'd just kept on
going... going. Knowing, believing, that eventually he would
have to reach land. This water was just not deep enough to go
on forever... to be a real lake or sea. And the finding of
ruins deeply buried convinced him of this premise.
But then what, once land was reached? Daniel could only
hope to find something edible growing, to find people,
civilization. For with the Stargate out at sea, he was not
hoping to ever get back home. And he had left no sign of his
presence at the Stargate, except for a dangling rope that would
be vaporized by any incoming vortex.
He felt terrible, though. Sore, nauseous. Hunger had grown
worse by the hour; he'd already eaten the last of the chocolate
bars, figuring they wouldn't be of any use if he was dead. His
wet clothing grated on his skin, and his boots... well, they
weren't really as bad as the rest of his clothing, rubbing
against him. He had tried walking without his boots for a
while, but the bits of broken stone scattered heavily over the
ground had been painful. And his skin felt tender, clammy. It
almost hurt.
He swam for a while, having reached some quite deep
stretches of water. He'd kept his backpack on, sensing he would
probably need the essential items if he ever made it to land.
The first aid kit; a sleeping bag, once it dried out. At first
it hadn't weighed him down all that much, and he could walk
part of the time. The water level kept shifting, at times he'd
be on slightly higher ground, water up to his waist. At other
times he was mostly about chin deep. Hours passed... three,
four? maybe more. The night was long, here, and Daniel wasn't
really keeping track of the time.
As he was absorbed in random thoughts, Daniel felt the
ground give way beneath his tired feet, and he suddenly found
himself plummeting below the surface. It was deep here, at
least twenty feet. Forcing his aching body to rise, gasping for
breath, once again finding it necessary to swim, Daniel
realized he was expending the last of his energy. He couldn't
go on much longer. He wouldn't be able to go on. And there was
still no land in sight.
Daniel swam with the last of his strength, but more and
more often found himself submerging. As slow-going as plowing
through the water was, the Stargate still had managed to vanish
into the distance long ago, and the only way to go now was
forward. But forward was way too far away. Daniel knew now he
could never make it.
The ground finally rose to meet his feet, and he stumbled,
submerged underwater on all fours. 'Don't breathe, don't
breathe...' . Daniel struggled to get up, but fell again.
He would have to rest, have to sit ... have to sleep. He had no
choice, other than to let himself drown. Daniel felt strong
hands pulling him up. "C'mon, buddy. Hang in there."
"Jack?" Daniel's hopeful eyes swung around, finding nothing
but empty darkness, lit by moonlight. "Right." His face fell.
He could've sworn...
That's it, Jack, keep me going when you're not even
here. Finding strength in his absent friends, sure that
he'd never see them again but knowing they wouldn't allow him
to just give up, Daniel pushed on, walking a bit, stumbling a
bit, walking again, legs heavily pulling and lifting themselves
in now waist-deep water. He tripped, one of the small
infrequent columns having rudely placed itself in his path.
This was it, he could go no further. Sitting on the object, his
head remained above water level this time. Daniel allowed his
eyes to close.
He was awakened abruptly by the pressure of water forcing
itself into his lungs, and he shot upright, coughing, choking.
Must've fallen asleep...good going, Daniel, he told
himself. Keep moving. Nothing left to do but move, for as
long as you can. Then see what happens after that.
So the pace continued, the molecules of renewed energy
lasting only minutes. But here, the water was even shallower.
If he could find a tree stump here, no, a column... to lean up
against, maybe...
There were a few pillar remains here, rising just
above water level. Daniel made his way over to the first one,
and dropped down at its base. The water was still above his
head. On a whim, he put his pack underneath him, and sat on it.
Almost.
Daniel submerged himself, and filled the backpack with wet
sand, stuffing the empty cracks and crevices around his now
soaking wet and very heavy sleeping bag. Should be just high
enough, this time. His skin hurt, his muscles felt like they
were dying, his whole body felt like it was weighted down with
lead. Or naquadah blocks, high quality. And he was cold. He sat
shivering on his stuffed pack, water up to his neck, rippling
now with the force of the wind, and leaned against the saviour
of an ancient pillar. He had no expectations. Whatever
happened, would happen. He'd have to make it to land another
day.
He didn't even remember closing his eyes.
--------------------
Day 3, 1430 hours
SG1 reached the little village in about twenty-five
minutes. Daylight was just arriving here, the stars losing
their twinkle in the pink sky of early morning. It had been
light at 0930 when they'd arrived here last time; obviously
this planet's revolutions took longer than twenty-four
hours.
The team was set upon at once by the welcoming villagers,
and led into the garden courtyards between some cozy stone
cabins. One of the male villagers was speaking, quite vibrantly
in fact, with hand gestures and facial expressions that seemed
rather ... urgent, almost. He wasn't upset, didn't seem
agitated, just ... curious, sort of.
"You're on, Steve," O'Neill nodded towards Lt. Madison.
"See if you can figure out how to communicate with these
people. I'm going to have a look around."
About 45 minutes later, an exuberant lieutenant went in
search of Colonel O'Neill. "Sir, the language does seem to be
similar to Greek in many ways, and I've been able to make out
some of what they've been trying to tell us. They apparently
saw us come through the Stargate two days ago, and then go back
through straight away. They were just wondering why. They
thought we'd changed our minds about visiting them and are now
really happy we've chosen to return."
Jack eyed the villagers in a slightly incredulous manner.
Few societies had welcomed them in such an open and gregarious
fashion, especially after seeing them come through the open
wormhole. An interesting bunch, these people were.
"Ask them what they know about the Stargate."
There was a bit of discussion between Madison and a few of
the villagers, with Madison's facial expression indicating that
he wasn't quite getting the gist of things. Even Jack could
figure out that the lieutenant was asking for things to be
repeated... well... more than once, and Jack was beginning to
get impatient.
"Colonel, give him time," Carter used her most persuasive
voice. This was reminding her of Jack's too-frequent impatience
with Daniel. "It's a new language for him, sir."
"Yeah, right." This was going to be a long day.
"Okay, Colonel O'Neill, sir." Madison looked relieved. "I
think I have it. They use the Stargate, sir."
"What?" Sam, Jack, and Teal'c all spoke at once. "They use
the Stargate??" "They have knowledge of its operation?"
Sly devils, some of these seemingly developing cultures.
The Nox......
Madison continued. "They know only one address, sir, of a
neighbouring "sister" planet. They trade with these people, who
may once have come from here, actually, they're not sure. They
share knowledge, and are on a definitely friendly basis with
them. That's why we're so welcome here - they think we're from
another such culture, another planet to become partners and
traders with."
"Tell them that could be arranged." O'Neill was eager to
get on with the true purpose of this mission, the mining
agreement, so he could get back to the base and see what was
happening with the search for Daniel.
On a whim, Jack added, "Just explain that we left quickly
because our other team member never made it through the 'gate
with us. We went back to find him."
Madison, now growing more comfortable and confident with
his new language skills, although still missing about
two-thirds of whatever the villagers were actually saying,
relayed both messages. He did not anticipate the sudden silence
that ensued.
The villagers were silently looking at each other, passing
strange... surprised... anxious... knowing? looks back and
forth. It raised the hairs on the back of Jack's neck, and even
Teal'c appeared disturbed.
"What did you say, Steve?" queried Sam.
"I... uh... I... THINK I told them exactly what Jack told
me to... I think..."
"Oh, for crying out loud, Madison, you probably told them
we want all their women, or something."
One villager stepped forward, and began to speak quietly to
the lieutenant. He spoke for several minutes, when suddenly
Steve's face turned pale.
He turned to the rest of SG1, his voice animated. "They may
have an explanation for what happened to Daniel...Sir!"
"Steve?" Carter was impatient for him to go on.
"What did he say, Lieutenant?"
"There IS another Stargate here, Sir. From what I could
gather, and please understand that some of this could be wrong,
but the one we came through is the secondary one, the original
being flooded out long before their perception of time. But
what happens sir... is both 'gates get activated
together..."
"The wormhole splits? But that's impossible," Sam was
already theorizing how this could happen.
"Not exactly, Major. It's almost simultaneous, but not
quite. The gate we came through, for some reason that they
don't know, stays connected only for about two or three
minutes, and the travellers of both worlds know to come through
immediately. If they're not quick enough, and this hasn't
happened in any of their lifetimes, the present gate shuts down
and the wormhole automatically diverts to the original gate,
which stays open for much longer."
"And Daniel Jackson left the embarkation room approximately
three minutes after ourselves." Teal'c voiced all their
thoughts.
"The two gates are probably too close together to operate
efficiently!" Sam was getting excited. "The original has "right
of way", so to speak, and when the builders connected the new
one, they didn't know how to flawlessly complete the process,
or didn't need to at the time... Sir, maybe that's why our
gates in Egypt and Antarctica were so far apart!"
"Okay, Carter, calm down. Let's see if they can lead us to
Daniel."
"O'Neill," Teal'c broke in, looking pensive. "Did they not
say the original gate was flooded out?"
Sam's face turned from lively, exuberant enthusiasm to one
of horror, in a fraction of a second. If he hadn't felt the
same way, Jack might've made a comment about it....
His voice was quiet. "Ask them if they can take us there,
Lieutenant .... Please."
The villagers were becoming activated, energized...
almost like their batteries had been turned on... Jack
felt his attention returning when Madison spoke.
"It's several miles from here, we'll have to walk. But once
we get to the water, they have something that sounds like a
boat, or a raft of some sort..."
"Sweet, let's go." Jack was already heading off, hoping the
villagers would take the hint. He had no idea which direction
to follow.
--------------------
Day 3, 1745 hours
They had been hiking through small outcroppings of cabins,
gardens, and plots of land growing what looked like a wide
assortment of vegetables. The rocks and soil seemed rich with
naquadah deposits, but Sam hardly noticed. Daniel was here??
Oh, she was hoping.
Finally, the sea was in sight. It seemed to stretch way off
into the distance, as far as the eye could see. As they had
come closer, there had been markings, piles of rocks that
supposedly pointed the way directly towards the Stargate, piles
that reminded Sam of "inukshuks", direction markers of the
Inuit peoples of northern Canada ... Daniel would know more
about that. Ironic - were they leading the way to .....
Daniel?
The boat was there, similar to a large dugout canoe. It
could hold about eight people, sitting.
"Let's go with four of us, just in case Daniel needs to ...
lie down." Jack had no idea if his friend would be alive, or
how the man could have spent nearly three days in the middle of
a flooded land mass. But one thing he was sure of; Daniel would
not be feeling very good.
Sam, Jack, and two of the villagers headed out in the
canoe, supposedly in the direction of the Stargate, although
the device couldn't be seen from such a distance.
They had been travelling a good hour and a half, and still
no Stargate in sight. Every now and then, the boat got stuck in
a sandbar, and they would have to get out and release it. The
water certainly wasn't very deep, over here.
Something in the distance caught Sam's eye. "Colonel? Over
there."
Jack followed her gaze. "Probably just a rock,
Carter."
"Probably, sir, but... it looks different."
As they approached, Jack and Sam staring intently at the
roundish mass poking out above water level as if to make it
come into focus that much sooner, the two teammates recognized
what it was at the same moment.
"Oh my god."
"Daniel!"
_______
Daniel didn't remember falling asleep.
And he never saw the glow from a very distant Stargate, a
wormhole that no one disembarked from.
He saw only a mirage when he opened his eyes, several hours
later, surrounded by water, cold water, numbness,
aching...weak, shivering. A mirage of friends... no; the
mirages in Egypt looked like small rivers in the desert, caused
by the heat waves reflecting in shadows on the sand... no sand
here... well, just underwater... no mirage, a vision, a
hallucination...
"Daniel."
A hallucination with a voice. With sound effects. Surround
sound, so real, so close. As if he were really there. 3D.
3D?... this was a really good camera....
"Daniel." The voice, more urgent. Daniel looked again,
something coming into focus. Sam? Jack?
"It's okay, Daniel. We're here now. You're safe."
Daniel felt his body being lifted out of the water... the
water hurt, so much. "Easy now, careful." Voices again. "Come
on, get him warm." He wasn't sure what was happening, really.
What was he doing here, anyway? He was being placed on his
back, and then the visions and sounds faded away....
_______
Daniel was mostly out of consciousness throughout the trip
back, and even throughout the ride in the wheeled wagon that
was pulled across the last nine miles of track by the many
villagers who had come to help.
Their concerned faces showed eagerness to get their new
friend back home, expecting the strangers to return as soon as
they could.
Daniel didn't awaken until he was in the infirmary, about
three hours after returning with his comrades through the
'gate. But when he did, he did recognize the faces of his three
close friends, no hallucination this time.
"Hey, Daniel."
"Danny, my boy. How ya feeling?" Jack looked both relieved
and concerned at the same time, if Daniel could figure out how
that worked.
"Been better, Jack, " Daniel responded groggily. "But ...
been worse, too. I'm dry.... Thank you.... God, thank you.
How'd you find me, anyway?"
And carefully sliding aside the IV pole, three friends sat
down on the edges of the infirmary bed, deep in the heart of
Cheyenne Mountain, to relate a tale of what once again seemed
to be Daniel's forte; fierce determination to conquer
hopelessness, to weather the battle for yet another chance at
life, of guardian angels and pure luck... and friends who would
always make damn sure to never give up.
back home
