Characters: Jack O’Neill, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c
Part: 2
Themes: Precursor to AU, Team, Stranded, Busted Stargates!
ESRB Rating: Teen - Strong Language, Violence
Prompt: 012 Orange
Season: 2-esque
Written: January 06
Revamped: August 06
Teal’c’s eyes came open with a snap. He way laying on his back in a field of grass. Over head, the jewel blue sky was choked with a thick, orange smoke, the fumes of which made his nose curl unpleasantly. It was a scent he was all too familiar with. He didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious for, but it was long enough, he knew that.
He made to sit up and take in his surroundings, but his head felt too heavy for his shoulders. Too… loose inside. The Jaffa recognized it as a potential concussion, but he also knew his symbote would take care of it for him in time. When Daniel Jackson had been teaching him how to read in the Tau’ri language, Teal’c had come across a passage about “the wages of sin”. O’Neill may call his symbote “Junior”, but Teal’c always thought of it as the price for his crimes.
Someone to his left groaned and this gave Teal’c the impetuous to finally sit all the way up. It wasn’t a field of grass, it was more of a valley. The bottom of the hill they’d been running down just before….
If possible, his full mouth turned even further downward.
“Every camper accounted for?” Pushing himself up on an elbow, Jack was already sporting the hallmarks of what was sure to become one hell of a shiner. He and Teal’c shared a nod, each maneuvering stiffly until standing. Daniel and Carter were still down, but Daniel seemed be coming back to the world of the living. Jerking his chin, he delegated the archaeologist to the Jaffa while he went to check on his second in command.
“C’mon, Captain. Rise and shine. There’s all kinds of really interesting questions I have for you.” He’d turned the woman over onto her back and could see a trickle of blood come from the corner of her mouth and the livid purple of a bruise already beginning to dominate the left side of her face. “Carter?” Tone more urgent, he slapped lightly at her cheeks until her blue eyes began to flutter.
“Ow, stop it. Cut. Lip somewhere. Sir.” In a groggy imitation of coordination, she reached up to touch the tender spot on her mouth, casting not quite focused eyes on her commanding officer. “Everyone okay?”
Jack tossed a glance over his shoulder to where Teal’c was helping Daniel into a sitting position, the other man’s large, dark hands already looking over Daniel’s wound from before. “Looks like. For now anyway. Any idea what the hell just happened?”
Her eyes opened wide in perplexed confusion, a long sigh passing over her teeth as she tried to get herself standing. Jack lent her a hand up, but that only made Sam have to massage her wrenched shoulder. The one she hadn’t so gently landed on. “Obviously some sort of massive explosion.” Her hand gestured towards the smoke roiling over their heads. “But I couldn’t even begin to guess what. Or why.”
He had an idea, but he thought he’d leave it to himself for now. “C’mon,” Jack gestured with another hook of his chin. He lead them over to the rest of SG-1 where Teal’c and Daniel were arguing on whether or not to treat the doctor’s shoulder.
“Teal’c?” Daniel’s voice was overly crisp to his ears in the absence of that horrific keening. The large Jaffa was looming over him as he turned him over from his front to his back. A lot of things hurt but nothing felt serious. More like he’d just been flung off a hill some feet into the air by a massive explosion. Which, ironically, was just what had happened.
“What was that? And… God, what’s that smell?” It made his stomach flip and forced him to put a hand up on Teal’c shoulder. No, it said. Don’t make me sit up yet. Unless we want to see what I had for breakfast.
“It is naquada. This is what it smells like when it has… been ignited.” He’d gotten the message loud and clear, but Teal’c went to pillow Daniel’s head anyway. Mostly, he was trying to better assesses the staff blast wound on his shoulder.
“Naquada? Ignited?” He really wanted to understand, but he was still having difficulty keeping his oatmeal out of his lap. Eventually Daniel was able to wrestle a measure of control and accepted Teal’c’s help to sit up straighter, long hair flopping in front of his eyes. But then he was batting away at the big hands trying to poke at his very sensitive shoulder. “Just leave it, it isn’t bad.”
“Doctor Frasier would not appreciate if you came back untreated, Daniel Jackson. You should let me tend to it.” But the very last thing Daniel wanted was to be pawed over. He just wanted to get home. Where they could all go to the infirmary and be pawed at equally. It only seemed fair. To him.
They looked a little rag-tagged, but Jack knew they had to keep alert. “Look as sharp as we can, people. Those Garfield guards could still be around.”
Teal’c dark expression thundered in the Colonel’s direction. “Ubasti,” he corrected.
“Whatever.” Like Jack had time right now to care. Carter was checking her weapon over, which made him feel a little better. He didn’t know how Daniel’s shoulder was, and he’d added a limp to his own repertoire, but three of four SG-1 were better odds then two of four SG-1. Sam had wicked bruising all along her cheek and what looked like down her throat, but apparently her hands were fine. Good. Turning to look up the hill, he tried to think of the best way to approach this.
“Alright. Teal’c with Daniel, Carter you’re with me. Nine o’clock, three o’clock, arcing wide back to the gate.” His hand made a sharp motion first left then right. “Keep as low as you can, radios on but keep chatter to a minimum .” He waited until he got three acknowledgments before motioning with the muzzle of his gun. “Right. Let’s see what kind of trouble those crazy kids got themselves into.”
“Oh, God.” She couldn’t help but grimace. Their tiny valley had shielded them somewhat from the smell, but once back up on more or less flat land, the stench made Sam’s eyes water. “It’s like being in the middle of a refinery. Where they’re refining dead dogs.” Sam Carter could be eloquent like that when she put her mind to it. She reached around behind her and dug out her gas mask.
“Any ideas now?” Jack’s hard brown eyes were scanning the track in front of them. The activity seemed to be focused right on top of the gate. It’s where the smoke was pouring out of and where the countryside was clearly chard. He was hesitating bringing out his binoculars, not reveling in the idea of being right.
“Well, one of the reasons we were even here was that MALP and UVA recon showed unusually high levels of naquada in the surrounding area.” The Colonel had been at the very same briefing as herself, but she knew it was pointless to assume he’d been listening. “But there weren’t any obvious sign of a mine or even rocky outcroppings. And the first sign of civilization was hundreds of clicks from the gate.” He at least nodded at that. Threat assessment, of course he’d heard that part. Crouching down as they came up to a stand of shrubs, Carter shrugged her shoulders as she peered through the leaves. “If it’s in the soil, like was postulated, and the Goa’uld detonated some sort of device… it could be bad, sir.”
“Bad how.” He’d stalled long enough; yanking his binoculars out of a vest pocket, he swung his vision wide in search of Daniel and Teal’c. So, okay, he stalled just that much longer. He thought he caught something that could be Teal’c’s formidable shape lurking around a knot of trees. That, or giant upright bears.
“Potentially very bad, sir.” Carter went down on one knee as Jack surveyed the area, P90 covering him. “We know that naquada is an accelerant, among its other properties. Even the smallest explosion is magnified hundreds of times by just the slightest amounts.”
Jack could only bring himself to sigh.
Daniel was getting better at being a solider, or at least more skilled in not tripping over his own two feet, but he knew he could never match Teal’c. As enormous as the guy was, he moved with the silent grace of a panther and was just as dangerous. In his wake, Daniel felt more like a sloppy puppy then his backup.
“You said this smell was naquada?” The orange smoke was doing nasty things to his eyes. And he was sure he’d be sneezing if his nose wasn’t too busy filling up. It was only getting worse as they got closer.
“Indeed.” Teal’c set a heady pace, confidante Daniel Jackson could keep up but pressing none the less. Some distance away he could still make out the bright mop of hair that was Captain Carter and the lanky smudge next to her that had to be O’Neill. They’d just gone down behind a clump of bushes, so Teal’c moved himself and Daniel into a stand of trees.
“But I don’t understand.” Given a grace period, Daniel was fishing a handkerchief out of a pocket to wipe at his streaming eyes. “Why would there be so much of it in the air even if those Jaffa had set off a naquada bomb? And why would they do that, anyway? Could they have known we were coming?” Then he was fishing his gas mask out from the side pocket of his pack.
“I do not know, Daniel Jackson.” SG-1’s Jaffa was known for his taciturn responses and dark brooding looks, but this was one to take the cake. All the cakes.
“Carter…? What— what am I looking at here.” It was pretty obvious what Jack was ‘looking at’, but it was simply impossible. An image that refused to make sense no matter how long he blinked and stared. Even when he thought he’d known what he was going to walk up on, thought he was prepared for, it wasn’t a sight to be believed.
“I— I—” Carter was stuttering, her bright blue eyes wide behind the Plexiglas shield of her mask.
“It was a controled overload of the Stargate, naquada charges much like your C4 used to expediate the process. That is what causes this smell, the color of the smoke, and the… extent of the damage.” His feet planted and grip firm around his staff weapon, Teal’c regarded what remained of the Stargate with a dark and thunderous expression. “They came here to destroy this world’s Stargate. They sacrificed themselves in the process.” There was a note of grudging respect in his timber.
They stood on another hill, looking down into the clearing that had held the ancient device. Around them the grass still smoldered but no longer threatened to spread for any distance. It was too new, too lush with life to let a little thing like fire trouble it. But down at ground zero, the earth was charred black, the alien smoke hanging thick in its unnatural hue. The Stargate— or, rather, the half moon that remained of the Stargate tilted precariously forward at a drunken angle. The other half was presumably in the lumpy, twisted bits that seemed melted straight into the ground. There wasn’t a body in sight but there were certain… parts… Jack was sure once belonged to the cat men.
“Jack…?” It was Daniel, and another set of bright blue eyes behind Plexiglas, turning towards him expectantly. Sometimes, times like these to be sure, Jack O’Neill really, really hated the weight of command. The weight of these people counting on him, needing him to bring them through this — it crushed his heart. But he couldn’t change that, and certainly couldn’t right now. All he could do was clear his throat and squint down at the wreckage. ‘God,’ he swallowed silently. ‘What the hell am I going to do.’
“Step lightly, people.” Then he moved them forward.
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