“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.”