SG1-25 Hostile Ground(10)

Janet Fraiser finished writing on the clipboard in her hand and smiled at the young airman who was rebuttoning his pants in the infirmary while trying to avoid her eye. The newbies were always like this after receiving their standard inoculation shots and routine checkup. As if baring their ass to a female doctor was the most embarrassing thing they’d ever done.

I was a cadet once too, son, she often wanted to say. I know what happens on leave.

But mostly she just smiled in what she hoped was a motherly way or made a joke to alleviate their awkwardness.

Right now, though, her heart wasn’t quite in it. She cast yet another glance at the clock, the clipboard and airman forgotten for the time being. Thirty-five minutes past due and still not a single word. Despite General Hammond’s reassurances, it was hard to convince herself that there was nothing wrong. Probably because she’d known there was something wrong before the team had even set their boots on the metal of the ramp.

This mission, their first since Colonel O’Neill’s return, was always going to be a tough one, but something just hadn’t sat right with her, as if the entire team were going through the motions. And now she wondered, if something had gone wrong, whether SG-1 were in any shape to deal with it.

“Will that be all, ma’am?”

“I’m sorry?”

She turned toward Airman Wallace, who watched her expectantly. “Am I done? Y’know, with the shots?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I’m sorry. Dismissed.”

The young man sped from the infirmary, but stopped short by the door to snap a textbook salute to the man who entered.

“General Hammond,” said Janet. She cast a glance at the coffee cup in his hand, but made no comment. By his expression, she suspected he needed it. “No word?”

He shook his head, worry and something deeper etched into every line on his face. His earlier confidence that everything was okay had clearly dissipated. “We sent a MALP, but the area around the gate is deserted. There’s worse too. From the telemetry, there’s evidence of a firefight close to the gate. Doctor, I’m going to order —”

The klaxon sounded. “Unauthorized off-world activation,” declared Harriman’s voice, and even over the loudspeaker Janet could hear his anticipation. Both she and the general took off, speeding down the corridors until they reached the control room.

But Harriman looked crestfallen when they arrived. “I’m sorry, sirs. It’s SG-3’s IDC.”

“Open the Iris,” ordered Hammond.

Janet followed him down to the gate room, where Colonel Makepeace and his team were starting to hand off their weapons to the waiting SFs.

“What’s going on, sir?” asked Makepeace.

“SG-1 are missing, Colonel,” Hammond said. “I want SG-3 mission ready again within thirty minutes. You’re going to P5X-104 and you’re going to find our people.”



Crouching close to the Stargate, Sam studied the small cairn of stones she’d built. It was off to one side, out of the path of the erupting event horizon, but close enough that a MALP would spot it immediately.

“Carter!” the colonel barked. “What’re you doing?”

She gritted her teeth against a flash of irritation. “Leaving a marker, sir,” she said, without looking up.

“Well hurry it up. We’re about to move out.”

“Yes sir.”

The question was how to make it clear to anyone who came looking that they’d been here? After a moment’s thought she reached around and pulled her SG-1 patch from the sleeve of her jacket.

She stared at it, caught by the insignia, at what it represented, and glanced up at her team. Teal’c stood poised and ready to move, while the colonel was helping Daniel to stand. Despite his injury, Daniel was smiling as the colonel tucked his shoulder under his arm to help support him. She felt a pang of melancholy as she watched them, as if she was witnessing the end of things, as if something indefinable was shifting between them all.

Shaking off the dismal feelings — this planet, she thought, bred them in its cold, dank mist — she lifted a few stones and secured her patch inside the cairn. The top quarter poked out and anyone from the SGC would recognize it immediately. As long they kept within radio and visual range of the Stargate, they’d be able to open a channel to Earth as soon as they saw the MALP come through. And it would come through, she knew it. No matter how they’d ended up here, rescue would come.

Unlike Colonel O’Neill, she refused to forget that Stargate Command didn’t leave its people behind.





CHAPTER FOUR




As soon as SG-3 emerged from the wormhole, Makepeace could see that O’Neill and his team had run into trouble. Craters, obviously from heavy Goa’uld artillery, pocked the ground and the rocks around the gate were charred by staff blasts. There had been a battle here, but whether SG-1 had come out on top remained to be seen.